wasp

noun

• 1a social winged insect which has a narrow waist and a sting and is typically yellow with black stripes. It constructs a paper nest from wood pulp and raises the larvae on a diet of insects.

  • Family Vespidae, superfamily Vespoidea, order Hymenoptera: several genera, in particular Vespula and Polistes

• 2a solitary winged insect with a narrow waist, mostly distantly related to the social wasps and including many parasitic kinds.

  • Several superfamilies in the sections Aculeata (digger, mason, and potter wasps) and Parasitica (parasitic wasps and gall wasps), order Hymenoptera