n.
- a social insect with a narrow-waisted, typically black and yellow striped body, which carries a sting and builds elaborate nests from wood pulp.
[Vespula, Polistes, and other genera.]
- a hymenopterous insect of a large group resembling the social wasps in appearance and either solitary or parasitic in habits.
Etymology
OE wæfs, wæps, wæsp, of W. Gmc origin; perh. rel. to weave1 (from the web-like form of its nest).