Waspish

Definition: Waspish

Waspish

Adjective

1. Very irritable; "bristly exchanges between the White House and the press"; "he became prickly and spiteful"; "witty and waspish about his colleagues".

Date "waspish" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1350. (references)

Domain	Definitions
Slang in 1811	WASPISH. Peevish, spiteful. Source: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Synonyms: Waspish

Synonyms: bristly (adj), prickly (adj), splenetic (adj). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Irascibility	Hasty, overhasty, quick, warm, hot, testy, touchy, techy, tetchy; like touchwood, like tinder; huffy; pettish, petulant; waspish, snappish, peppery, fiery, passionate, choleric, shrewish, " sudden and quick in quarrel ".
Violence	Adjective: violent, vehement; warm; acute, sharp; rough, rude, ungentle, bluff, boisterous, wild; brusque, abrupt, waspish; impetuous; rampant.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Waspish

English words defined with "waspish": bristly ♦ prickly ♦ splenetic. (references)

Specialty definitions using "waspish": WASPISH. (references)

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	Don't get waspish with me, mister. (Bad Day at Black Rock; writing credit: Howard Breslin; Don McGuire)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	Europe Bloody Europe: An Illustrated, Brief and Waspish History of Britain's E.E. Partners (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

"Waspish" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 90.00% of the time. "Waspish" is used about 20 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)	90%	18	82,615
Lexical Verb (base form)	5%	1	339,140
Noun (common)	5%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	20	N/A

Expression using "waspish": bristly prickly snappish splenetic waspish. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Language		Translations for "waspish"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		zemërak (choleric, cross, grumpy, ornery, peevish, peppery, petulant, quick tempered, techy, tetchy), si grenzë, idhnak (grumpy, liverish, ornery, peevish, petulant, querulous, quick tempered, sorehead, testy, vixenish). (various references)

Arabic		‏لاذع (acerb, acid, acrid, acrimonious, biting, bitter, bitterly, burning, caustic, cutting, harsh, hot, keen, mordant, nippy, peppery, piquant, poignant, pungent, rough, salty, sarcastic, savory, savoury, scathing, scorching, sharp, sharp tongued, smarting, snappish, snappy, spicy, spiteful, stinging, tart), ‏زنبوري. (various references)

Bulgarian		язвителен (acerb, acerbic, acid, acidulated, acrid, acrimonious, adust, biting, cutting, incisive, mordant, poignant, pungent, sardonic, splenetic, stinging, trenchant, vinegary, vitriolic), зъл (bad, bad tempered, baleful, blackhearted, evil, ill, ill disposed, ill tempered, ill-conditioned, malign, malignant, mean, scratchy, sinister, snaky, stuffy, sulphurous, swart, tricky, venomous, vicious, wicked). (various references)

Czech		voskovitý, podráždìný (edgy, fretful, fussy, grumpy, peevish, resentful, uptight), nedùtklivý (irritable, petulant, sensitive, testy, thin-skinned, touchy), kousavý (acerbic, acrid, barbed, bitchy, biting, caustic, cutting, dry, pointed, scathing, snappy, tart, vitriolic), jízlivý (acerbic, blistering, catty, scathing, sneering, snide, spiteful, unkind, wry), štiplavý (acrid, piquant, poignant). (various references)

French		hargneux, grincheux. (various references)

German		reizbar (bilious, excitable, excitably, grumpy, inflammable, irascible, irascibly, irritable, irritably, nervous, peevish, prickly, sensitive, snappy, testy, touchy). (various references)

Greek		σφηκοειδήσ, ευερέθιστοσ (edgy, excitable, fretter, passionate, peevish, petulant, prickly, testy, touchy), λεπτόσ (dainty, delicate, exquisite, fine, flimsy, gossamery, lank, nice, rangy, refined, sleazy, slender, slight, slim, slimsy, subtile, subtle, svelte, tactful, tenuous, thin, ticklish), δύστροποσ (bloody minded, cantankerous, captious, crabbed, cranky, cross, fretful, grouch, illtempered, morose, peevish, pettish, recalcitrant, shrewish, splenetic, splenish, sullen, surly, testy, untoward, vixenish, wayward). (various references)

Hebrew		עוקצ� י (cuspidal, cutting, pungent, sarcastic). (various references)

Hungarian		darázs-, csípõs (acrimonious, biting, hot, peppery, poignant, pungent, scathing). (various references)

Italian		collerico (bilious, choleric, hot tempered, irascible, passionate). (various references)

Manx		caulgagh (bad-tempered, barbed, bearded; lesser weaver, bristly, exasperating, prickly, truculent). (various references)

Pig Latin		aspishway

Portuguese		petulante (flip, hoity toity, huffy, hussy, malaria, perk, pert, petulant, sassy), irritável (bilious, crab, crabbed, crusty, edgy, fretful, grumpy, hot-blooded, huffish, huffy, irate, irritable, liver-coloured, liveried, livery, nervous, nervy, petulant, shirty, short tempered, techy, testy, tetchy, touchy), irascível (fractious, fretful, gusty, hot-blooded, intractable, irascible, irritancy, quarrelsome, spunky, techy, testy, tetchy, touchy), atrevido (audacious, boastful, bold, cheeky, daring, gay, impertinent, insolent, malapert, pert, presumptuous, pushing, saucy, uppity, wanton). (various references)

Russian		осиный (hornet's, waspy). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		razdražljiv (crabby, grumpy, high strung, highly strung, irritable, jumpy, nervous, nervy, short tempered, techy, tetchy), poput ose. (various references)

Spanish		enojadizo (fractious, huffy, irritable, peevish, short tempered, splenetic). (various references)

Swedish		retlig (crabbed, fretful, fretting, ill tempered, irritable, Moody, peevish, pettish, snappy, snuffy, testy, touchy). (various references)

Turkish		ince belli (slender, slender waisted, slim, slim waisted), huysuz (acrimonious, as cross as two sticks, bad tempered, bilious, cantankerous, churlish, crabbed, crabby, crank, cranky, cross-grained, crosspatch, crotchety, crusty, cursed, difficult, disagreeable, disgruntled, doggish, farouche, fractious, fretful, gnarled, grouchy, gruff, grumbling, grumpy, ill natured, ill tempered, ill-humored, ill-humoured, liverish, mean, Moody, out of humour, out of sorts, peeved, peevish, peppery, perverse, pettish, petulant, prickly, quarrelsome, querulous, ratty, rusty, shirty, snappish, spleenful, spleenish, splenetic, stroppy, sulky, surly, tetchy, thrawn, ugly, untoward, vicious, vixenish, wildcat, wrongheaded), asabi (choleric, crusty, hot-blooded, hot-headed, irritable, nervous, prickly, quick tempered, ratty, short tempered, techy, testy). (various references)

Ukranian		уїдливий (acid, acrid, acrimonious, arrowy, barbed, biting, carping, cattish, caustic, epigrammatic, exceptive, fault finding, mordacious, mordant, pointed, smart, spiteful, waspy), осиний (waspy), дошкульний (mordacious, nipping, pungent, waspy). (various references)

Vietnamese		gay gắt (acidly, cutthroat, cutting, scathing), gắt gỏng (crossly, disagreeable, ill-tempered, snappish, snappy, surly), dễ cáu (bilious, biliously, fiery, irascible, nervy, passionate, quick-tempered, rambunctious, raspy), châm chọc; hiểm ác, bẳn tính chua chát. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "waspish": waspishly, waspishness, waspishnesses. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Waspish" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: waspfish, Whsmith. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Words rhyming with "waspish" (pronounced 'Wasp"ish'): Abolish, Admonish, Affamish, Alish, Amateurish, Apish, Aspish, Assish, Astonish, Babish, Baboonish, Balkish, Banish, Bardish, Basquish, Bearish, Beauish, Blackish, Blockish, Bluish, Bluntish, Boarish, Bookish, Boorish, Boyish, Brackish, Brainish, Brinish, Broadish, Brockish, Brownish, Buccaneerish, Buckish, Buffoonish, Bullish, Calvish, Cavalierish, Cherish, Childish, Churlish, Clayish, Clownish, Coldish, Coltish, Coolish, Coyish, Czarish, Dampish, Danish, Dankish. (additional references)

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-h-i-p-s-s-w"
	-1 letter: aspish, phasis, pshaws, spahis.
	-2 letters: aphis, apish, apsis, aspis, hasps, pshaw, shaws, ships, spahi, swaps, swash, swish, wasps, whaps, whips, wisha, wisps.
	-3 letters: asps, haps, hasp, haws, hips, hiss, pash, pass, paws, phis, pias, pish, piss, psis, saps, sash, saws, shaw, ship, sips, spas, swap, waps, wash, wasp, whap, whip, wish, wisp, wiss.
	Words containing the letters "a-h-i-p-s-s-w"
	+1 letter: shipways, swampish, warships, whipsaws.
	+2 letters: wampishes, wardships, waspishly.
	+3 letters: whiplashes.
	+4 letters: showmanship, stewardship, wardenships, waspishness.
	+5 letters: athwartships, showmanships, stewardships, workmanships.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.