Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A cloth wound around the head, framing the face, and drawn into folds beneath the chin, worn by women in medieval times and as part of the habit of certain orders of nuns.
  • noun A fold or pleat in cloth.
  • noun A ripple, as on the surface of water.
  • noun A curve or bend.
  • intransitive verb To cover with or dress in a wimple.
  • intransitive verb To cause to form folds, pleats, or ripples.
  • intransitive verb Archaic To form or lie in folds.
  • intransitive verb To ripple.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A covering of silk, linen, or other material laid in folds over the head and round the chin, the sides of the face, and the neck, formerly worn by women out of doors, and still retained as a conventual dress for nuns.
  • noun A plait or fold.
  • noun A loose or fluttering piece of cloth of any sort; a pennon or flag.
  • To cover with or as with a wimple or veil; deck with a wimple; hide with a wimple.
  • To hood wink.
  • To lay in plaits or folds; draw down in folds.
  • To resemble or suggest wimples; undulate; ripple: as, a brook that wimples onward.
  • To lie in folds; make folds or irregular plaits.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A covering of silk, linen, or other material, for the neck and chin, formerly worn by women as an outdoor protection, and still retained in the dress of nuns.
  • noun A flag or streamer.
  • transitive verb To clothe with a wimple; to cover, as with a veil; hence, to hoodwink.
  • transitive verb To draw down, as a veil; to lay in folds or plaits, as a veil.
  • transitive verb To cause to appear as if laid in folds or plaits; to cause to ripple or undulate.
  • intransitive verb To lie in folds; also, to appear as if laid in folds or plaits; to ripple; to undulate.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A cloth which usually covers the head and is worn around the neck and chin. It was worn by women in medieval Europe and is still worn by nuns in certain orders.
  • noun A fold or pleat in cloth.
  • noun A ripple, as on the surface of water.
  • noun A curve or bend.
  • verb To cover with a wimple.
  • verb To draw down; to lower.
  • verb To cause to ripple.
  • verb To flutter.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun headdress of cloth; worn over the head and around the neck and ears by medieval women

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English wimpel, from Old English; see weip- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English wimpel ("veil, an article of women's dress; a covering for the neck, a cloak, a hood"), from Proto-Germanic *wimpilaz; liken Old Saxon wimpal, Old Norse vimpill ("hood, veil"), Old High German wimpal, Middle Dutch, Dutch wimpel, German wimpel.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English wimplen ("to cover, conceal; to fold, drape")

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Examples

  • 1615 CROOKE Body of Man 123 A certaine smooth and slippery veyle or wimple is substrated.

    Medallion Vulcan | SciFi, Fantasy & Horror Collectibles 2009

  • Their gowns or tunics are so immensely long, that the fair dames are obliged to hold them up, to enable them to move; whilst a sweeping train trails after them; and over the head and round the neck is a variety of, or substitute for, the wimple, which is termed a _gorget_.

    Godey's Lady's Book, Vol. 42, January, 1851 Various

  • Steevens in his note states that "the wimple was a hood or veil, which fell over the face."

    A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 6 William Carew Hazlitt 1873

  • In the house, women wore an odd sort of head-dress called a wimple, which came down to the eyebrows, and was fastened by pins above the ears.

    Our Little Lady Six Hundred Years Ago Emily Sarah Holt 1864

  • The wimple was a covering for the neck, said to have been introduced in the reign of Edward I. See Chaucer's

    Marmion Walter Scott 1801

  • She also looks eerily like Kim Possible in a nun's wimple, which is almost certainly someone's secret fantasy.

    COMIXTALK 2009

  • Author comment: the most common use of "wimple" appears to be the head-scarf thing.

    The first paragraph contest thread 2008

  • Until now, I had always thought that a "wimple" was the name given to the offspring of two Lib Dems...

    Ann Widdecombe for London Mayor? 2007

  • Regarding "wimple", which you misspelled twice, I am aware of the OE usage, but you were not.

    Ann Widdecombe for London Mayor? 2007

  • "I asked 10 people" - dear God, where did you find them - "if they knew the meaning of 'wimple' and only three did!"

    Ann Widdecombe for London Mayor? 2007

Comments

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  • a low halo

    March 6, 2009

  • "When first I met the mother of this maiden, nine bushels of flax were sown therein, and none has yet sprung up, white nor black. I require to have the flax to sow in the new land yonder, that when it grows up it may make a white wimple for my daughter’s head on the day of thy wedding."

    - Thomas Bulfinch, 'Age of Fable'.

    September 19, 2009

  • Compare guimpe.

    January 9, 2024