wimple

noun

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.

   “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.”

   “Even the unprecedented detail of the Urbanist regulations is still not sufficient to enable us to envisage with accuracy the appearance of the wimple or the other items that went to make up the habit.”

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

1. To cover with a wimple.

   “this wimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy”

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 in heart some hidden care she had, 35 And by her in a line a milke white lambe she lad.”

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.”

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.”

   “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 her trimmed with a wary tread, While on every side like lightening fell”

name

1. A surname.