wasp Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a white person of Anglo-Saxon ancestry who belongs to a Protestant denomination
    white Anglo-Saxon Protestant.
  2. noun social or solitary hymenopterans typically having a slender body with the abdomen attached by a narrow stalk and having a formidable sting

WordNet

Wasp noun
Etymology
OE. waspe, AS. wæps, wæfs; akin to D. wesp, G. wespe, OHG. wafsa, wefsa, Lith. vapsa gadfly, Russ. osa wasp, L. vespa, and perhaps to E. weave.
Definitions
  1. (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of stinging hymenopterous insects, esp. any of the numerous species of the genus Vespa, which includes the true, or social, wasps, some of which are called yellow jackets. ✍ The social wasps make a complex series of combs, of a substance like stiff paper, often of large size, and protect them by a paperlike covering. The larvæ are reared in the cells of the combs, and eat insects and insect larvæ brought to them by the adults, but the latter feed mainly on the honey and pollen of flowers, and on the sweet juices of fruit. See Illust. in Appendix.

Webster 1913