TO GIVE (WEAR, or SHOW) A WISP, verb. phr. (old).—A wisp, or small twist, of straw or hay, was often applied as a mark of opprobrium to an immodest woman, a scold, or similar offenders; even the showing it to a woman was, therefore, considered as a grievous affront. It was the badge of the scolding woman, in the ceremony of SKIMMINGTON (q.v.).

1

  1567.  T. DRANT, Horace, vii.

        So perfyt and exacte a scoulde, that women mighte geue place,
Whose tatling tongues, had won a WISPE, to stande before theyr face.

2

  1595.  SHAKESPEARE, 3 Henry VI., ii. 2.

          Edw.  A WISP of straw were worth a thousand crowns,
To make this shameless callet know herself.

3

  1628.  EARLE, Microcosmographie (BLISS), 278. [Of a scold.] There’s nothing mads or moves her more to outrage, then but the very naming of a WISPE, or if you sing or whistle while she is scoulding.

4

  1632.  ROWLEY, A New Wonder [Old Plays, v. 266].

          Steph.   … Nay, worse, I’ll stain thy ruff; nay, worse than that,
I’ll do thus.  [Holds a WISP.]
  M. Fost.  O my heart, gossip, do you see this? Was ever
Woman thus abus’d?

5