wisp
/wɪsp
/noun
1A small thin or twisted bunch, piece, or amount of something: wisps of smoke rose into the air...
- She suggests the goggles' straps with abbreviated wisps of graphite that twist and whip about the page.
- Her hair was up in a French twist with a few wisps of hair framing her face.
- Other pieces offer the barest wisps of melody, relying on the group's ability to generate structure spontaneously.
Synonyms
strand, tendril, lock;
piece, scrap, shred, thread
1.1A small bunch of hay or straw used for drying or grooming a horse.
1.2A small, thin person, typically a child: a fourteen-year-old wisp of a girl...
- It was hilarious to see how hard the boy was trying to intimidate a small wisp of a girl and failing miserably.
- Turning, she saw the voice's owner, a thin wisp of a man in strange white clothing.
- Ash Beck, a thin wisp of a person, pushed through the crowd and ran to where Ian lay.
2 rare A flock of snipe: a wisp of snipe utter their well-known cry...
- As soon as a wisp of snipes arrive, off starts our mercury with the glad tidings.
- I never saw but two ducks and one wild wisp of snipes.
- If a man hears of a wisp of snipe in any particular place, he must be off at once.
Origin
Middle English: origin uncertain; perhaps related to whisk.