Word.ws English Dictionary

wimple

/ˈwɪmpəl/

wimple noun: a cloth which usually covers the head and is worn around the neck and chin. It was worn by women in medieval Europe and is still worn by nuns in certain orders.

wimple: a cloth which usually covers the head and is worn around the neck and chin. It was worn by women in...
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Noun

wimple (plural wimples)

  1. A cloth which usually covers the head and is worn around the neck and chin. It was worn by women in medieval Europe and is still worn by nuns in certain orders.
    • [T]he people all wore hosen and shoon and smocks and jupes and jerkins and wimples.1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 55
    • There are two tombs, each bearing effigies of a knight and his lady. One is 14th century, the other 15th century. The earlier knight wears chain mail and his lady has long, flowing hair. The later knight has plate armour, and his wife wears a wimple.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 54
  2. A fold or pleat in cloth.
  3. A ripple, as on the surface of water.
  4. A curve or bend.
  5. A flag or streamer.

Verb

wimple (third-person singular simple present wimples, present participle wimpling, simple past and past participle wimpled)

  1. To cover with a wimple.
    • this wimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boyc. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  2. To draw down; to lower, like a veil.
    • IV A lovely Ladie[*] rode him faire beside, Upon a lowly Asse more white then snow, Yet she much whiter, but the same did hide 30 Under a vele, that wimpled was full low, And over all a blacke stole she did throw, As one that inly mournd: so was she sad, And heavie sat upon her palfrey slow; Seemed...1590, Edmund Spenser, Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I, published 1921
  3. To cause to appear as if laid in folds or plaits; to cause to ripple or undulate.
    • The wind wimples the surface of water.
    • [T]hoſe fair Straths that vvater’d are / VVith Tay and Tvveed’s ſmooth Streams, / VVhich gentily and daintily / Eat dovvn the flovvry Braes; / As greatly and quietly / They vvimple to the Seas.1720, Allan Ramsay, “The Poet’s Wish: An Ode”, in Poems, Edinburgh: Printed for the author […] [and sold by T. Jauncy […]], →OCLC, page 359
  4. To flutter.
    • Stars wavered and wimpled in the black waters of the Hudson as a launch put out in silence from the foot of Twenty-seventh Street.1920, George Allan England, The Flying Legion
    • She wimpled about in the pale moonbeam, Like a feather that floats on a wind tossed-stream; And momently athwart her track The quarl upreared his island back, And the fluttering scallop behind would float, And patter the water about the boat; But he bailed her out with his colen-bell, And he kept...1836, Joseph Rodman Drake, The Culprit Fay

Proper noun capitalized: Wimple

Wimple (plural Wimples)

  1. A surname.

wimple meaning in Urdu and Kannada

wimple in Urdu

موڑ, نقاب, پیچ, تہہ

wimple in Kannada

ತೆರೆಯೇಳು

Forms of wimple

Noun
pluralwimples
Verb
third-person singular presentwimples
present participlewimpling
past participlewimpled
pastwimpled
Proper noun
pluralWimples
alternative formWimble

Origin of wimple

From Middle English wympel, wimpel, from Old English wimpel (“veil, an article of women's dress; a covering for the neck, a cloak, a hood”), from Proto-Germanic *wimpilaz (“wimple, scarf, veil”). Cognate with Scots wympill (“wimple”), Dutch wimpel (“streamer, pennant”), German Wimpel (“pennant”), Swedish vimpel (“pennant, banner”), Icelandic vimpill (“hood, cowl”).

From Middle English wimplen (“to cover, conceal; to fold, drape”).

From wimple, a metonymic occupational surname for a maker of wimples.

Words that rhyme with wimple

Questions about wimple

What does wimple mean?
Wimple means a cloth which usually covers the head and is worn around the neck and chin. It was worn by women in medieval Europe and is still worn by nuns in certain orders.
What is wimple in Urdu?
Wimple in Urdu is موڑ, نقاب, پیچ. See Wimple meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is wimple?
Wimple can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce wimple?
Wimple is pronounced /ˈwɪmpəl/.
What is the plural of wimple?
The plural of wimple is wimples.

Words near wimple in the dictionary

  1. wimping
  2. wimping out
  3. wimpish
  4. wimpishly
  5. wimpishness
  6. wimple
  7. wimpled
  8. wimpleless
  9. wimplelike
  10. wimples
  11. wimplike

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wimple (page history and authors); Wimple (page history and authors); wimple (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); wimple (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-wimple.wav.

Cite this entry: “wimple.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wimple. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.