wasp-waisted
English edit
Etymology edit
Referring to the slender petiole of a wasp.
Adjective edit
wasp-waisted (comparative more wasp-waisted, superlative most wasp-waisted)
- Having a very slim waist, especially as a result of tightly-laced clothing.
- 1969, Doris Lessing, The Four-Gated City, HarperCollins, published 1993, page 33:
- 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.
- 1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 11:
- He strutted down Bond Street with the best of them, decked out in in his top hat, wasp-waisted coat and silk hose.
- 2011 October 12, Lucy Mangan, The Guardian:
- "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.
Related terms edit
Translations edit
having very slim waist
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