a. [f. WISP sb.1 + -Y1.] Consisting of or resembling a wisp or wisps.
In early quots. with allusion to will-o’-the wisp.
a. 1717. Parnell, Fairy Tale, xxvii. Will, who bears the wispy fire To trail the swains among the mire.
1830. Aird, Demoniac, iii. 31. Miriam saw white wispy fires dance. Ibid. (1830), Captive of Fez, III. ii. 6. The skirring moon … from her horn-tips tossed the wispy rack.
1839. J. Wilson, in J. Hamilton, Mem., vi. (1859), 208. These [cribs of the Cameleopards] are … filled with a dry wispy-looking plant, neither hay nor clover.
1887. F. Cowper, Cædwalla, 141. A few locks of wispy hair hung down over the forehead.
1894. Athenæum, 24 Nov., 719/1. That the group itself is filled with nebulous matter, which in general attaches itself to the various stars and is of a wispy and streaky nature, is well known.
