wasp

plural wasps · alternative waps

1. Any of many types of stinging flying insect resembling a hornet.
2. biologyAny of the members of suborder Apocrita, excepting the ants (family Formicidae) and bees (clade Anthophila).
   1. biologyAny of the members of the family Vespidae.
3. A person who behaves in an angry or insolent way, hence waspishly.

present singular third person wasps · participle present wasping · participle past wasped · past wasped · alternative waps

1. transitiveTo move like a wasp; to buzz.

plural wasps

1. Alternative letter-case form of WASP (“white Anglo-Saxon Protestant”).

   The show went through clothes to suit the lifestyle of a wealthy wasp, an American archetype that is now synonymous with the brand.

   2026 January 17, Lauren Cochrane, “Paul Smith reworks his past at Milan menswear salon show”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 17 Jan 2026

plural WASPs · alternative Wasp · alternative wasp

1. USabbreviationacronymAcronym of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, a member of the supposed ruling class of America.

   Bill got to college only by dint of support from a female relative and heiress (a useful WASP resource) and by scholarships, then a symbol of WASP entitlement.

   1989 March 19, Elizabeth Janeway, “The Brotherhood of the WASP”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 24 Jan 2022

   3 more examples

   Joseph Alsop, the acerbic columnist she married in 1961, called his crowd “the ever-diminishing group of survivors of the WASP ascendancy.” It was a world of perfect manners and closely held power, not hugs and meaningful exchanges.

   1993 October 31, Maureen Dowd, quoting Joseph Alsop, “The WASP Descendancy”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 24 Jan 2022

   Growing up in white suburbs and attending elite schools and institutions of higher learning, black American prince and princesses are immersed in Anglo (often WASP) culture and emerge with modes of speech, behavior and grooming that brand them as "Oreos," black on the outside and white in the middle.

   2002 November 26, Adrienne Crew, “BAP like me”, in Salon, archived from the original on 15 Jul 2007

   We once had a coherent ruling class, the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs), who more or less owned and ran the United States from its founding through the 1970s. Based largely in the Northeast, with offshoots in the Upper Midwest, WASPs went to the same elite schools and colleges, belonged to the same clubs, married out of the same pool, and vacationed in the same favorite rural retreats. There were Southern WASPs, descendants of the slave-owning gentry, but they never had the social weight of their northern relatives—although they did rule their region and enjoy an outsized role in Congress for decades.

   2021 April 27, Doug Henwood, “Take Me to Your Leader: The Rot of the American Ruling Class”, in Jacobin, archived from the original on 28 Aug 2022

2. abbreviationhistoricalinitialismInitialism of Women Airforce Service Pilots.

plural Wasps

1. Alternative letter-case form of WASP.

   1 more example

   Purists like to confine Wasps to descendants of the British Isles; less exacting analysts are willing to throw in Scandinavians, Netherlanders and Germans. At the narrowest, Wasps form a select band of well-heeled, well-descended members of the Eastern Establishment; at the widest, they include Okies and Snopeses, "Holy Rollers" and hillbillies.

   1969 January 17, “Essay: Are the WASPS Coming Back? Have They Ever Been Away?”, in Time, →ISSN