wasp waist
1
8.8
- noun
- /wɑːsp weɪst/
:
cintura de avispa
- The designer's latest collection featured outfits that emphasized a wasp waist, reminiscent of vintage couture.
Examples
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Many fashion trends of the past celebrated the wasp waist as an ideal of beauty and femininity.
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Having a flat stomach is the dream of all women: a deflated abdomen, sculpted abs, and a wasp waist!
Blog text (17) -
She wore a dazzling dress that accentuated her wasp waist, creating an elegant silhouette.
How Narrow
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'an extremely slender waist' is directly inferable from combining 'wasp' (an insect with a notably slender body) with 'waist' (the narrow part of the torso). This noun–noun comparative/metaphorical pattern is a straightforward compositional image that a B1 learner who knows both constituents can readily understand.
Etymology
The phrase wasp waist comes from the picture of a wasp with a very thin middle and a human waist made very small by tight clothes like a corset. So, people compared a tiny, squeezed waist to a wasp's body, and the phrase came to mean 'an extremely slender or narrow waist' and to suggest 'fashionable'.