wast

Verb

be (highly irregular—See conjugation table)

1. (auxiliary) Used with past participles of verbs to form the passive voice.
   • The dog was saved by the boy.
2. Used with present participles of verbs to form the continuous aspect.
   • The woman is walking.
3. Used with to-infinitives of verbs to express intent, obligation, appropriateness, or relative future occurrence.
   • I am to leave tomorrow.
4. Used with past participles of certain intransitive verbs to form the perfect aspect.
   • He is finished.
5. (Caribbean, Ireland, auxiliary, African-American Vernacular) To tend to do, often do; marks the habitual aspect.
   • Women be shoppin’! You cannot stop a woman from shoppin’!1996, David Sheffield, Barry W. Blaustein, Tom Shadyac and Steve Oedekerk, screenplay of The Nutty Professor
6. (with-dummy-subject) To exist.
   • There is just one woman in town who can help us.

See all 25 meanings of be

Noun

waist (plural waists)

1. The part of the body between the pelvis and the stomach.
2. A part of a piece of clothing that covers the waist.
3. The narrow connection between the thorax and abdomen in certain insects (e.g., bees, ants and wasps).
4. The middle portion of the hull of a ship or the fuselage of an aircraft.
5. That part of the upper deck of a ship between the quarterdeck and the forecastle.
   • There he stood, very quietly overlooking some sailmakers who were mending a top-sail in the waist.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 18”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC
6. The middle part of anything.
   • The waist of a bell widens into the lip.