Describes a person, or the things they say, that are sharp, irritable and meant to sting a little. A waspish remark is short, clever and unkind — not a shout, but a small quick jab, often delivered calmly, sometimes even wittily. That is the picture the word carries: a wasp does not chase you across a field like a big animal; it darts in, stings, and is gone. So waspish is not the word for someone raging or violent; it is the word for someone easily annoyed whose annoyance comes out as cutting little comments. Two shades to notice. Said of a mood, it leans towards "bad-tempered and prickly today" — she was tired and waspish. Said of a remark or a tone, it leans towards "cuttingly clever" — a waspish reply, a waspish sense of humour — and there people sometimes half admire it, the way they half admire a good insult. It is a literary, written word, commoner in novels and reviews than in conversation; in speech people say snappy, snippy, catty, or bitchy. It is not a compliment. Be careful too that the same spelling exists as a different word: WASPish, from the initials WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant), meaning typical of that group of Americans — a completely separate word that only looks the same.

（說話）尖酸刻薄的、易怒愛諷刺的（像被蜂螫一下）；偏書面語，口語較常說 snappy、刻薄。