Dictionary

wasp-waisted en · ADJ

Etymology

Referring to the slender petiole of a wasp.

Meanings

1. Having a very slim waist, especially as a result of tightly-laced clothing.
   • Being a devotee of the Johnny Weismuller school of Tarzaning, no wasp-waisted cartoon character can get my blood aboil. 1999 July 18, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Atlanta, Ga, page 8:
   • He strutted down Bond Street with the best of them, decked out in his top hat, wasp-waisted coat and silk hose. 1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 11:
   • "Housewife" recalls too strongly the wasp-waisted 1950s figure outwardly thrilling to the latest advances in domestic technology while necking tranquillisers to dull the pain of frustrated ambition. 2011 October 12, Lucy Mangan, The Guardian:
   • Last week she had opened a door by mistake on a staircase in Bayswater and a woman in a tight black waspwaisted corset, pearls lolling between two great naked breasts, stood by a cage made of gold wire the size of a fourposter bed, in which were a dozen or so brilliantly fringed and tinted birds. 1969, Doris Lessing, The Four-Gated City, HarperCollins, published 1993, page 33:

Forms

Relateds

wasp waist

Translations (3)

bg с много тънка талия (having very slim waist) · fi ampiaisvyötäröinen (having very slim waist) · hu darázsderekú (having very slim waist)