[f. WASP sb. + -Y1.]
1. Resembling a wasp in form, wasp-like.
1658. Rowland, trans. Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 921. Whereupon that Greek Comick Poet calls those Maids,… for their slendernesse in the waste σφηκοδεῖς [sic], waspy or like Wasps.
1869. T. W. Wood, in Student, II. 87. The hornet clearwing,… so waspy in appearance.
1870. Daily News, 19 July, 6. A brown horse with a light waspy middle.
1839. Sportsman, 29 July, 2/1. So long as a waspy waist is considered ‘a thing of beauty.’
2. Abounding in wasps.
1681. Rector’s Bk. Clayworth (1910), 53. It was also a very waspy year.
1880. Morris, in Mackail, Life (1899), II. 13. Very hot and waspy it was at dinner.
