Noun: waist
| Singular | waist |
| Plural | waists |
Sample Sentences
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There he stood, very quietly overlooking some sailmakers who were mending a top-sail in the waist. [1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 18”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:]
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The waist of a bell widens into the lip.
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In the dead vast and middle of the night [c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:]
Nouns inflected like waist
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English wast (“waist”), probably from Old English *wæst, *wǣst, *weaxt, *wæhst, from Proto-West Germanic *wahstu, from Proto-Germanic *wahstuz (“growth, development, stature, build”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂weks- (“to multiply, increase”). Cognate with Middle English wacste (“growth, increase, might, power”), Middle High German wahst (“growth”), Danish vækst (“growth”), Swedish växt (“growth, development, size”), Icelandic vöxtur (“growth”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌷𐍃𐍄𐌿𐍃 (wahstus, “growth”). Related to Old English weaxan (“to grow, increase”). More at wax. See: Middle English Nouns '
wast', Middle English Nouns '
wast', Middle English Nouns '
wacste', Danish Nouns '
vækst', Swedish Nouns '
växt', Icelandic Nouns '
vöxtur', Gothic Nouns '
𐍅𐌰𐌷𐍃𐍄𐌿𐍃', Old English Nouns '
weaxan'.
Verbs referencing "waist"
Gothic Nouns
𐍅𐌰𐌷𐍃𐍄𐌿𐍃, Danish Nouns
vækst.