waspy

waspy

1. Irascible or peevish; petulant; easy to annoy or anger. I find myself becoming more and more waspy as the years go by. I just don't have the patience for other people's nonsense anymore. Her mother was always very waspy toward her children, which I know affected Margaret very deeply for years to come.
2. informal Having the appearance or manner of white protestants of British or Northern European descent, especially those who are wealthy and socially influential. The term alludes to the acronym "WASP" (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant), and it is sometimes left capitalized to reflect this. All of his girlfriends have been a bit waspy, don't you think? Some people consider him WASPy because of the way he dresses and acts, but it's more of an affectation than anything else.
3. informal By extension, snobby, haughty, or condescending, especially due to one's high socioeconomic status. I didn't feel very welcome playing golf there. Everyone was a bit WASPy, like they could sense I didn't come from the right kind of family. A: "The restaurant's silverware wasn't polished properly, and I had to indicate for the waiter at least twice during the meal." B: "Oh, get over yourself, Janet. You can be so waspy sometimes."
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • waspish
  • sorehead
  • try the patience of (someone)
  • become fond of (someone or something)
  • try (one's) patience
  • try one's patience
  • try patience
  • try somebody's patience
  • pick up (one's) marbles and go home
  • pick up (one's) marbles and leave
References in periodicals archive
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Rather, he explained to me with some delicacy, a Jewish refugee like myself would never be fully accepted on the board of what was then a very Waspy, deliberately blue-blooded company.
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The over-the-top WASPY Winklevosses reminded me of Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) in Harry Potter.
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In the 1970s, WASPy teenager Alice Tatnall accidentally sets fire to a friend's house and is branded "Arson Girl." She finds solace and surprising enjoyment working in a New Haven, Connecticut candy factory called Zip's, which was founded in 1924 by the Jewish Hungarian immigrant Eli Czaplinsky.
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Joan thought of the chief psychiatrist's wife's hand-drawn map, "Trees of Belmont." That was WASPy. If she knew anything, Joan knew this place.
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In his discussion of Cathedral, Campbell identifies preoccupations and characters common to soap operas in Carver's "A Small, Good Thing." The most clearly sentimental of Carver's stories, Campbell (1992) points out, "A Small Good Thing" contains stock soap opera characters--a handsome doctor, an elegant, WASPy couple, their tragically injured son.
"It all fell in on him": masculinities in Raymond Carver's short stories and American culture during the 1970s and 1980s
While Ralph Lauren was selling his "waspy," quintessential preppy styles, Liz Claiborne opted for a wider audience.
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"Think school teacher" she has said about her tight skirts, waspy waists and plunging necklines.
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Though she cooks like an angel and sweetly does the housework for him, he finds her dull and has feelings for a WASPy colleague, Julia.
Mothering siblings: diaspora, desire and identity in American Born Confused Desi
We had names that sounded almost waspy. There was Bobby (also known as Pig), Kim, Harold, Wilfred (to whom no nickname ever stuck), Otto, and me, Cuffy.
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