The nest of a wasp. Also fig.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prioress’ T., 107. Sathanas That hath in Iues herte his waspes nest.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 517/2. Waspysnest, vesparium.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 128. Which … bring foorth a swarme (as it were) of bees, or rather a waspes neast in us.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., IV. iv. 814. Hee has a Sonne, who shall be … set on the head of a Waspes Nest.
1745. Phil. Trans., XLIII. 363. Two Sorts of curious Wasps Nests made with Clay.
1819. Shelley, Cyclops, 474. If like a wasp’s nest I could scoop the eye out Of the detested Cyclops.
1853. Lytton, My Novel, III. xxiv. Your policy of half-measures,… which flaps an exasperated wasp-nest with a silk pocket-handkerchief, instead of blowing it up with a match and train, is rarely successful.
1858. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt. X. ii. (1873), III. 223. Cannot we get away from this scurvy wasp’s-nest of a Paris?
1870. Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. IV. VI. 328. The female Rhipiphorus lays her eggs before leaving the wasps’ nest.
1899. D. Sharp, Insects, II. 82. It would be impossible in the space at our disposal to give a satisfactory account of all the forms of wasp-nests. Ibid., 86. A person may station himself close to a wasp’s nest and remain there without any risk at all, provided that he makes no movement.
Hence Wasp-nesting vbl. sb. [-ING1], the action of searching for wasp’s nests.
1872. Routledge’s Ev. Boy’s Ann., 1873, 263/1. Fancy going about wasp-nesting with some one at your heels to take care of you.
