Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A speech defect or mannerism characterized by mispronunciation of the sounds (s) and (z) as (th) and (th).
- noun A sound of or like a lisp.
- intransitive verb To speak with a lisp.
- intransitive verb To speak imperfectly, as a child does.
- intransitive verb To pronounce with a lisp.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The habit or act of lisping, as in uttering th for s, and
Ŧh for z; an indistinct utterance, as of a child. - To pronounce the sibilant letters s and z imperfectly, as by giving the sound of th (as in
thin ) orŦh (as in this, either.) - To speak imperfectly, as in childhood; make feeble, imperfect, or tentative efforts at speaking; hence, to speak in a hesitating, modest way.
- To pronounce with a lisp or imperfectly.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To pronounce with a lisp.
- transitive verb To utter with imperfect articulation; to express with words pronounced imperfectly or indistinctly, as a child speaks; hence, to express by the use of simple, childlike language.
- transitive verb To speak with reserve or concealment; to utter timidly or confidentially.
- intransitive verb To pronounce the sibilant letter
s imperfectly; to gives andz the sound ofth ; -- a defect common among children. - intransitive verb To speak with imperfect articulation; to mispronounce, as a child learning to talk.
- intransitive verb To speak hesitatingly with a low voice, as if afraid.
- noun The habit or act of lisping. See
lisp , v. i., 1. - noun (Computers) a high-level computer programming language in which statements and data are in the form of lists, enclosed in parentheses; -- used especially for rapid development of prototype programs in artificial intelligence applications .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The habit or an act of lisping.
- verb To pronounce the sibilant letter ‘s’ imperfectly; to give ‘s’ and ‘z’ the sounds of ‘th’ (
IPA : /θ / ð/) — a defect common amongst children. - verb To speak with imperfect articulation; to mispronounce, as a child learning to talk.
- verb To speak hesitatingly and with a low voice, as if afraid.
- verb To pronounce with a lisp.
- verb To utter with imperfect articulation; to express with words pronounced imperfectly or indistinctly, as a child speaks; hence, to express by the use of simple, childlike language.
- verb To speak with reserve or concealment; to utter timidly or confidentially; as, to lisp treason.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a flexible procedure-oriented programing language that manipulates symbols in the form of lists
- noun a speech defect that involves pronouncing `s' like voiceless `th' and `z' like voiced `th'
- verb speak with a lisp
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word lisp.
Examples
-
Well, Christian Bale “normal” with lisp is actually Christian Bale American Accent with lisp.
Movie Review: Memorial Day Double-Feature | Heretical Ideas Magazine 2009
-
Looks like the guy with the lisp is going to become a semi-regular on Big Bang.
-
Hey look, them kids are hacking in lisp! trackback
hughstimson.org » Blog Archive » Lego and Logo: the Simple Joys of Childhood, Revisited 2008
-
If I call a lisp routine, via the command line then the lisp code will run and the VBA code will try to continue running.
-
If I call a lisp routine, via the command line then the lisp code will run and the VBA code will try to continue running.
-
If I call a lisp routine, via the command line then the lisp code will run and the VBA code will try to continue running.
-
He was a frail, shy, smallish, unhealthy boy with the pale skin and transparent eyes of his Scottish forebears and a speech impediment that some described as a lisp and others as a slight stutter.
EMPIRE OF THE SUMMER MOON S. C. Gwynne 2010
-
The person who placed the order speaks with a lisp, which is why it came out "Youth" instead of "Youse."
Insulting Inscriptions 101 Jen 2009
-
If the closest you get to a lisp is the programming language, take a seat.
waterdiluted Diary Entry waterdiluted 2005
-
For about the opening two minutes of his address his lisp was a dominant feature; one's mind almost tended to wander from what he was saying.
Winston Churchill 1941
oroboros commented on the word lisp
I would like to know of a link to a page which lists - in matched pairs - all of the sets of fairly common words in the English language (or at least all of the 1, 2 or 3-syllable ones) WHICH ACTUALLY EXIST, and which sound like completely different words (real words, commonly used in conversation, including slang) - when spoken with, and without, a lisp.
Examples:
pithy/pissy
moss/moth
Thin/Sin
myth/Miss
Lass/Lath
Bath/Bass
Meth/Mess
Truth/Truce (truss?)
Questionable:
Sauce/Thoth (okay, so names of ancient mythical deities are sometimes allowed in a pinch)
Cloth/Claus (claws?) (not a soft "S" sound)
oath/Oz
booze/booth
prissy/prithee
Strictly speaking (or perhaps lisply speaking…?), only soft "th" sounds - as in thin or three - should be included, not hard "th", as in then, or there. But sometimes, even inveterate punsters have to settle for less than perfect…
January 11, 2007
lampbane commented on the word lisp
"Lisp is over half a century old and it still has this perfect, timeless air about it."
November 17, 2007
Prolagus commented on the word lisp
Tell Veronica the secret of the boy you never kissed
She's got everything to gain 'cause she's a fat girl with a lisp
She sticks up for you when you get aggravation from the snobs
'Cause you can't afford a blazer, girl, you're always wearing clogs
(Expectations, by Belle and Sebastian)
August 8, 2008
frindley commented on the word lisp
Years ago I learned something very useful from C.S.Lewis. (The Last Battle in the Narnia series, I think.)
In the book one character whispers to another while on a night-time reconnaissance: "Get down, thee better."
Lewis then explains that she says this not because she has a lisp but because she knows that the sibilants are the noisiest part of any whisper and the sound most likely to give you away if you're trying to go undetected.
And ever since I have always made a point of lithping when whithpering. Or at least avoiding words with sibilants in them.
August 8, 2008