wispily

comparative more wispily · superlative most wispily

1. In a wispy manner.

   “Yes,” said Julia, vaguely and wispily. “Yes, dear, you have.”

   1922, D. H. Lawrence, chapter 6, in Aaron’s Rod, London: Martin Secker, page 64

   4 more examples

   From some far seaward cisterns of the air billows of fog poured down over the city of San Francisco; rebounding like smoke from the summer-heated fronts of hills, they settled in shady hollows and caught wispily at rows of trees.

   1908, Mary Hunter Austin, chapter 22, in Santa Lucia, New York: Harper, page 282

   A man and his dog were going to materialize, were going to appear out of thin air—wispily at first, becoming, finally, as substantial as any man and dog alive.

   1959, Kurt Vonnegut, chapter 1, in The Sirens of Titan, New York: Dial, published 2006, page 2

   He caught a last glimpse of Mitzi’s large breasts bulging out above her brassiere, wispily veiled by the negligee.

   1971, Iris Murdoch, An Accidental Man, New York: Viking, page 196

   But the fat man remains, as does the cashier, who is wispily blond, with a bony hillbilly nose and translucent white skin.

   1991, Douglas Coupland, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 64