WAIST • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Waist

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/weɪst/ Listen

noun

Waist n.

That part of the human body which is immediately below the ribs or thorax; the small part of the body between the thorax and hips. "I am in the waist two yards about."

Hence, the middle part of other bodies; especially (Naut.), that part of a vessel's deck, bulwarks, etc., which is between the quarter-deck and the forecastle; the middle part of the ship.

A garment, or part of a garment, which covers the body from the neck or shoulders to the waist line.

A girdle or belt for the waist. (Obs.)

Waist anchor. See Sheet anchor, 1, in the Vocabulary.

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Etymology of 'Waist'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Waist" Quotes from Famous Books

... chimney, where roars and crackles a great blazing heap of logs. Surely, for a monkish song, their melody is most odd; yet monks they are, for all are clothed in gray, like Father Anselm, and a rope round the waist of each. But what can possibly be in that huge silver rundlet into which they plunge their goblets so often? The song grows louder ...

— The Dragon of Wantley - His Tale • Owen Wister

... around her slim ankles, that could be perfectly fascinating in silken hose and dainty slippers. Her khaki skirt, of the divided kind much affected by tourists, had lost two big, pearl buttons, and she had no others to replace them. Her shirt-waist had its collar turned inside for coolness, and the hollow of her neck was sun-blistered and beginning to peel. Also her nose and her neck at the sides were showing a disposition to grow new skin for old. So much had the desert sun ...

— Starr, of the Desert • B. M Bower

... but, if you could hear the rotten things the fellows say about the way the girls dress, you wouldn't want to go that way; and I don't want them to talk that way about my sister. Couldn't you stick in a towel or an apron or something, and make a little more waist to the thing? I'm sure you'd look just as pretty, and the fellows would think you a whole lot nicer girl. I don't want you to get the nickname of the Freshman Vamp. ...

— Cloudy Jewel • Grace Livingston Hill

... still greater effort. Yet he could not wholly escape the water of the sump. He had still to pass through it. It was cold and black. It came to his ankles as he trudged along. By and by it reached to his knees. When it grew to be waist-deep he lifted the child to his shoulder, steadied himself against the side wall of the passage and pushed on. He slipped often, he became dizzy at times, there were horrible moments when he thought surely that the dark water would close ...

— Burnham Breaker • Homer Greene

... [Footnote 44: 'The waist' of a ship of this kind is a hollow space, of about five feet in depth, contained between the elevations of the quarter-deck and forecastle, and having the upper-deck for its ...

— The Poetical Works of Beattie, Blair, and Falconer - With Lives, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes • Rev. George Gilfillan [Ed.]

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