Waist

Forms: 4–6 waast, 4–7 wast, 4–S waste, 6 Sc. west, 7 wayst, 5, 7– waist. [14th c. wast, believed to represent an OE. *wæst, *weahst, corresp. to ON. *vahstu-r (Icel. vǫxt-r, Sw. växt, Da. væxt), Goth. wahstu-s, growth, size, f. Teut. root *waχs-: see WAX v.¹ With regard to the form cf. OE. wæstm, growth, fruit:—OTeut. type *waχstmo-z from the same root. With regard to the meaning cf. F. taille, where the sense ‘waist’ appears to be developed from the sense ‘size (of body).’ The word (in the form wacste, which may be either native or Scandinavian) app. occurs with the sense ‘greatness’ in the following quot.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 77. Þe fader is ine þe sune on þre wise. On wacste [Trin. Hom. iv. on westme], for he is muchel and mihti ouer alle þing.

  The spelling waist was rare until it was adopted in Johnson’s Dict., 1755.]

  1.  The portion of the trunk of the human body that is between the ribs and the hip-bones; the middle section of the body, normally slender in comparison with the parts above and below it.

  In quot. c. 1480 humorously misused.

13[?].  Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 144. Bot his wombe & his wast were worthily smale.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Sir Thopas, Prol. 10. He in the waast is shape as wel as I.

1390.  Gower, Conf., II. 373. Whan I beclippe hire on the wast.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 9902. Dyomede … Halfe-lyueles … felle, With a wicked wound thurgh the wast euyn.

c. 1420.  Anturs of Arth., 578 (Douce MS.). He bronched him yne withe his bronde … þorghe þe waast of þe body.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 517/2. Waste, of a mannys myddyl…, vastitas, Cath.

1470–85.  Malory, Arthur, XI. xii. 589. There he fond a knyght that was bounden with a chayne faste about the wast into a pyller of stone.

c. 1480.  Henryson, Fox, Wolf & Husbandman, 192. The tod lap on land … And left the wolf in watter to the waist.

1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, xxxii. 29. He grippit hir abowt the west.

1509.  Hawes, Past. Pleas., xxix. (Percy Soc.), 135. His necke shorte,… His breste fatte and bolne in the wast.

1571.  R. Bannatyne, Memor. (Bannatyne Club), 170. Culan and his men … waide to their westis befoir thei come to dry land.

1579.  Spenser, Sheph. Cal., April, 134. Gird in your waste … with a tawdrie lace.

1605.  Shaks., Lear, IV. vi. 127. Downe from the waste they are Centaures, though Women all aboue.

1650.  Bulwer, Anthropomet., xx. (1653), 338. Young Virgins … who thinking a slender waste a great beauty, strive all that they possibly can by streight-lacing themselves, to attaine unto a wand-like smalnesse of waste.

1667.  Milton, P. L., IX. 1113. Those Leaves They gatherd … And … together sowd, To gird thir waste.

1687.  A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., I. 29. Over the Doliman, they gird themselves about the small of the waste with a Sash.

1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist., II. 260. He was so tall, that the Spaniards only reached his waist.

1839.  Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 105. And, lo! half of him, from his waist to the soles of his feet, was stone.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. xviii. 131. Hitherto my guides in dangerous places had tied the ropes round their waists also.

1871.  Figure Training, 17. It is not to be wondered at that ten years ago a waist of sixteen inches in circumference, for a lady of average height, should be regarded as a … much-to-be-admired achievement.

1880.  ‘Ouida,’ Moths, I. 5. She made her waist fifteen inches round.

  ? Proverbial phrase.  1611.  Chapman, May-Day, V. Wks. 1873, II. 401. Hauing chaster and simpler thoughts then Leonoro imagines because he measures my wast by his owne.

  b.  Applied to the corresponding part in an insect.

1713.  J. Warder, True Amazons, 3. The Bee is … very slender in the Waste [1741 p. 15 Waist] or middle part.

1871.  Staveley, Brit. Insects, xiii. 155. The insects belonging to these two subsections can at once be distinguished from each other by their waists being large or small.

  c.  transf. The middle narrower part (of something compared in shape to the human body). Cf. 4.

1612.  Drayton, Poly-olb., VI. 194. That part of Wales,… Which (as her very waste) in breadth from East to West In length from North to South, her midst is every way.

1817.  Byron, Manfred, I. i. Mont Blanc is the monarch of mountains,… Around his waist are forests braced.

1862.  Merivale, Rom. Emp., lxi. (1865), VII. 325. He had quitted the waist and had here reached the neck of Britain.

  2.  † a. A girdle. Obs.

1550.  Crowley, Epigr., 1315. Hyr mydle braced in as smal as a wande; And some by wastes of wyre at the paste wyfes hande.

1588.  Parke, trans. Mendoza’s Hist. China, 77. They do weare wastes or girdels imbossed with gold.

1595.  Shaks., John, II. i. 217. Those sleeping stones, That as a waste doth girdle you about By the compulsion of their Ordinance.

1599.  Peele, David & Bethsabe, G iij b. I might haue giuen thee for thy paines Tenne siluer sickles and a golden wast.

c. 1611.  Chapman, Iliad, VII. 264. A faire well glossed purple waste [ζωστῆρα … φοίνικι φαεινόν].

  transf. and fig.  1579.  Fenton, Guicciard., IX. 478. The enemies abandoned suddeinly the towne wherein the french being bestowed, planted their artillerie against the first wast [It. contro al primo procinto].

1591.  Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., IV. iii. 20. Spurre to the rescue of the Noble Talbot, Who now is girdled with a waste of Iron.

1599.  Marston, Ant. & Mel., I. Wks. 1856, I. 12. Weele girt them with an ample waste of love.

  b.  The part of a garment that covers the waist; the narrowed part of a garment corresponding to the narrowing of the body at the waist (but sometimes, in accordance with fashion, worn higher or lower than the position of this); the place in a woman’s dress where the bodice and skirt meet.

1650.  Bulwer, Anthropomet., App. (1653), 539. The waste (as one notes) is now come to the knee; for, the Points that were used to be about the middle, are now dangling there.

1711.  Steele, Spect., No. 109, ¶ 4. The Modern [petticoat] is gather’d at the Waste.

1836.  Marryat, Midsh. Easy, xix. They loaded the pistols, took a pair each and put them in their waists.

1871.  Figure Training, 25. Ladies of fashion in England might be said to have at that period [c. 1806] abandoned waists altogether.

1885.  Fairholt’s Costume Engl., I. 405. In 1794 short waists became fashionable. Ibid., 408. Open gowns were discarded, and waists about 1798 became longer, until at the end of the century they regained their proper shape.

  c.  The part of a garment between the shoulders and the ‘waist’ or narrowed part (see 2 b).

1607.  Dekker & Webster, Northw. Hoe, III. i. What fashion will make a woman haue the best bodie Taylor? Tay. A short dutch wast with a round cathern-wheele fardingale.

1837.  Dickens, Pickw., ii. ‘Rather short in the waist, an’t it?’ said the stranger, screwing himself round to catch a glimpse in the glass of the waist buttons which were half way up his back. Ibid. (1853), Bleak Ho., vi. Ladies haymaking, in short waists, and large hats tied under the chin.

  fig.  1590.  Nashe, 1st Pt. Pasquil’s Apol., C iij. These places are too short in the waste to serue hys turne.

  d.  A bodice, blouse. Chiefly U.S.

1816.  Sporting Mag., XLVIII. 189. A lady observing her neighbour in a public room, dressed very tawdrily in a satin waist, drily remarked, it was a waste of satin.

1878.  H. James, Europeans, II. ii. 44. She wore a white muslin waist with an embroidered border.

1893.  Mrs. Custer, Tenting on Plains, 85. I had exchanged the waist for a jacket, and left it under a tree.

1903.  W. Churchill, Mr. Crewe’s Career, xix. 317. Mrs. Fitch … had run from the wash-tub to get into her Sunday waist.

  e.  U.S. ‘An undergarment worn specially by children, to which petticoats and drawers are buttoned’ (Cent. Dict.).

1893.  Helen Campbell, in Arena, 435. Two and a half cents each is paid for the making of boys’ gingham waists.

  3.  Naut. The middle part of the upper deck of a ship, between the quarter-deck and the forecastle.

1495.  Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 194. Stone gonnes of yron in the Wast of the seid Shipp.

15[?].  Batayll of Egyngecourte, 90 A ij. These goodly shyppes lay there at rode … The wastes decked with serpentynes stronge.

1530.  Palsgr., 287/1. Waste of a shyppe, cors de nauire.

a. 1586.  Sidney, Arcadia, II. xxiv. § 5. Already it [the fire] did embrace and deuoure from the sterne, to the wast of the ship.

1610.  Shaks., Temp., I. ii. 197. Now on the Beake, Now in the Waste, the Decke, in every Cabyn, I flam’d amazement.

c. 1618.  Moryson, Itin., IV. viii. (1903), 136. Being built large in the Wast and Keele for Capacitye of Marchandize, they are vnfitt to fight at Sea.

1748.  Anson’s Voy., I. iii. (ed. 4), 41. The waste of the ship was filled with live cattle.

1816.  ‘Quiz,’ Grand Master, I. 18. Neptune will presently be here, And as his godship is in haste, Muster the people in the waste.

1883.  Man. Seamanship Boys, 9. Q. Which is the waist? A. That portion of the upper deck contained between the fore and main hatchways.

1915.  Baden-Powell, Ind. Mem., i. 5. The heavy seas had … carried away the ladders leading from the upper deck into the waist.

  b.  In occasional uses: (a) pl. = waist-rails; (b) each of the two sides of the waist.

1667.  Lond. Gaz., No. 127/4. She has been 52. dayes beating at Sea in fowl weather, in which she spent her Main-Top-Mast and her Wasts.

1679.  A. Lovell, Indic. Univ., 199. The waste, or defences of the sides of a ‘Ship.’

1820.  W. Scoresby, Acc. Arctic Reg., II. 196. A ship having seven boats carried one at each waist…, two at each quarter…, and one across the stern.

  4.  Applied to the narrowest or slenderest part of an object that is smaller in breadth or girth near the middle than at the extremities; esp. of a bell, a violin or similar instrument, a boot or shoe.

1612.  S. Rid, Art of Jugling, E 2. A peece of lether … which being thrust vp hard to the middle or waste of the said bell, will sticke fast.

1676.  Moxon, Print Letters, 26. Describe the outer Arch under the Waste of g on the left hand.

1791.  Smeaton, Edystone L. (1793), § 80. It also seemed equally desirable, not to increase the size of the present building in its Waist; by which I mean that part of the building between the top of the rock, and the top of the solid.

1862.  Catal. Internat. Exhib., II. xxvii. 51. The ‘Cremerian boot,’ with elastic spring in waist or arch of foot.

1872.  Ellacombe, Bells of Ch., viii. in Ch. Bells Devon, 497. The waist of the bell is studded with stars.

1874.  J. D. Heath, Croquet-Player, 26. The amount of spring or elasticity in the handle varies according to the thickness of the waist or thinnest part of it.

1895.  Hasluck, Boot Making, viii. 132. To make a square waist, an iron similar to a double iron is used; for other waists, irons are used according to the shape required.

  ¶ 5.  Affectedly used for: Middle (of day or night). Obs.

1602.  Shaks., Ham., I. ii. 198. In the dead wast [Qq. 1, 5, 6 vast] and middle of the night.

1604.  Marston, Malcontent, II. v. D 3 b. Tis now about the immodest waste of night.

1622.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Merrie-Wherrie-Ferrie Voy., Wks. 1630, II. 7/1. About the waste or Nauell of the Day [note, Noone if you’l take it so]. Ibid. (1644), Crop-eare Curried, 1. About the Waste or Navel of the night, Drowsie Somnus came stealing to me.

1651.  Loves of Hero & Leander (1653), 2. This was about the wast of day: The middle, as the vulgar say.

  6.  attrib. and Comb. a. With sense ‘intended to be placed, or worn, on or round the waist,’ as waist-belt, -buckle, -clout, † -doublet, -girdle, -piece, -plate, -pocket, -scarf; with sense ‘outlining or following the contour of the waist,’ as waist-line; objective, as waist-gripping, -hold, -pressing, -tightening; with adjs., as waist-deep, high.

1672.  Dryden, 1st Pt. Conq. Granada, Prol. 10. I’ll write a Play, sayes one, for I have got A broad-brim’d hat, and *wastbelt tow’rds a Plot.

1868.  Queen’s Regul., § 1128. Both straps of the havresack are to be worn outside the waist belt, so that the havresack may be easily shifted.

1805.  Ann. Reg., Chron., 394/2. Her Majesty has recovered a diamond *waist-buckle which she had lost, and for which 10 guineas reward had been offered for the recovery.

1864.  Lowell, Fireside Trav., 4. The merest *waist-clout of modesty.

1763.  Scrafton, Indostan (1770), 117. There was no way of approaching it [sc. the place], but through a morass *waist-deep.

1814.  Scott, Ld. of Isles, V. xiv. The eager Knight leap’d in the sea Waist-deep.

1855.  Tennyson, Brook, 118. Waist-deep in meadow-sweet.

1553.  in J. C. Jeaffreson, Middlesex County Rec. (1886), I. 14. Unum diploidem vocatum a *wast-dubleit. Ibid. Duos velvet *wast gyrdles.

1908.  Sir H. Johnston, Geo. Grenfell & Congo, II. xxiii. 589. A waist-cloth is worn all round the body from below a waist-girdle, down to the knees.

1600.  Fairfax, Tasso, XI. xxvii. *Wast high Argantes shew’d himselfe withall.

1875.  Meredith, Beauchamp’s Career, xii. (1897), 95. A fence waist-high enclosed its plot of meadow and garden.

1904.  Daily Chron., 12 Jan., 8/4. Two minutes passed before the men sought the mat, and then Cherpillod got a *waist hold, but failed to turn the American over.

1897.  Westm. Gaz., 2 Sept., 3/2. The most critical place in the shirt and skirt costume is the *waist-line…. One rule is universal in every well-made French gown—that the waist-line slopes downward to the front.

1870.  C. C. Black, trans. Demmin’s Weapons of War, 228. *Waist-piece, or great brayette (Vorderschurz) belonging to a Gothic suit of the fifteenth century.

1902.  New Reg. War Office, 58. *Waist-plate. Frosted Gilt Rectangular Plate with Burnished Edges. On the Plate the Royal Cypher and Crown in Silver within an Oak-leaf Wreath. On the lower part of the Wreath a Scroll inscribed ‘Dieu et mon droit.’

1858–61.  E. B. Ramsay, Remin., v. (1870), 129. His snuff he kept … in a leathern *waist-pocket.

1841.  Lever, C. O’Malley, xxxv. And the free and easy chuck under the chin, cherishing, *waist-pressing kind of a way we get with the ladies.

1853.  Kane, Grinnell Exped., xxx. (1856), 264. A long, *waist-scarf, worn like the kummerbund of the Hindoos, is a fine protection while walking, to keep the cold from intruding at the pockets and waist.

1882.  Besant, All Sorts, xxi. The Professor was already come to the period of *waist-tightening.

  7.  Special comb.: waist-anchor Naut., an anchor stowed in the waist of a vessel, a sheet-anchor; waist-board Naut. (see quots.); waist-boat Naut., a boat carried in the waist of a ship, esp. of a whaling-vessel; hence waistboater, the officer in charge of such a boat; waist-hammer, -iron, shoemakers’ tools (see 6); waist-nettings Naut. (see quots.); waist-panel Carriage-building (see quot.); waist-torque (see quot.). See also WAISTBAND, -CLOTH, -COAT, etc.

1846.  A. Young, Naut. Dict., *Waist-Anchor, a spare bower anchor in a ship of war.

1891.  H. Patterson, Naut. Dict., 160. Sheet Anchor, the anchor carried in the waist on board men-o’-war. It is the same in weight as the bowers; sometimes called the waist anchor.

1627.  Capt. J. Smith, Sea Gram., ii. 9. The *Waist boords are set vp in the Ships waist, betwixt the Gun-waile and the waist trees, but they are most vsed in Boats, set up alongst their sides to keepe the Sea from breaking in.

1725.  De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 326. A kind of waste board, about two feet high, built up on the sides, without any calking or pitching, or anything to keep out the water.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Waist-boards, the berthing made to fit into a vessel’s gangway on either side.

1891.  Century Dict., *Waist-boat, a boat carried in the waist of a vessel; specifically, in whaling, the second mate’s boat, carried in the waist on the port side. Ibid., Waistboater, the officer of the boat carried in the waist of a whaler; the second mate.

1895.  Hasluck, Boot Making, vi. 89. The waist … should be treated with a *waist- or cramp-hammer. Ibid., viii. 130. The *waist-iron.

1849.  Ter Reehorst, Mariner’s Friend (1850), 198. *Waistnetting.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Waistnettings, the hammock-nettings between the quarter-deck and forecastle.

1884.  Forney, Car-Builder’s Dict. (Cent.), *Waist-panel, the panel immediately above the lowest panel on the outside of a carriage-body.

1891.  Century Dict., *Waist-torque, a girdle, properly one of twisted or spiral bars, worn by the northern nations in the early middle ages.