wisp
To brush or dress, as with a wispTo brush or dress, as with a wisp.
» A wisp of smoke rose from the chimney.
Feiner Rauch stieg aus dem Schornstein auf. — Waldelfe
sundown · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
4 senses(transitive)To brush or dress, as with a wisp.
(intransitive)To produce a wisp, as of smoke.
(transitive)To emit in wisps.
(UK, dialectal, obsolete)To rumple.
Examples
7 sentencesA wisp of smoke rose from the chimney.
deFeiner Rauch stieg aus dem Schornstein auf. — Waldelfe
A wisp of hair fell over his left eye.
Will-o'-the-wisps are glowing, ghost-like creatures.
deIrrlichter sind leuchtende, geisterhafte Wesen. — Waldelfe
A solemn wisp of smoke rose from the shattered city.
Will-o'-the-wisp is the light phenomenon traditionally ascribed to ghosts.
Origin
From Middle English wispe, wyspe, wips, wipse, perhaps from an unrecorded Old English *wisFrom 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”).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
wisps, wisping, wisped, wispedLessons for this word
3 lessons- A1Present simple — Because it is a verb
- A1Past simple, regular verbs — Because of its past form
- A2Present perfect: introduction — Because of its past participle