wisp

Meanings

1. A small bundle, as of straw or other like substance; a twisted handful of something; any slender, flexible structure or group.
2. A small, thin line of cloud, smoke, or steam.
3. A whisk, or small broom.
4. A will o' the wisp, or ignis fatuus.
5. An immeasurable, indefinable essence of life; soul.
6. A flock of snipe.
7. A disease affecting the feet of cattle.

1. To brush or dress, as with a wisp.
2. To rumple.
3. To produce a wisp, as of smoke.
4. To emit in wisps.

1. Acronym of wireless internet service provider.

Etymology

From Middle English wispe, wyspe, wips, wipse, perhaps from an unrecorded Old English *wisp, *wips. Cognate with West Frisian wisp, Dutch wisp (“bundle of hay or straw”), Norwegian bokmål/Swedish/Bornholm Danish visp (“handful or bundle of grass, hay, etc.”). Akin also to Middle Dutch/Middle Low German wispel (“measure of grain”).