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vespaio

wasp's nest

noun vehs-PAH-yoh Rare
Animals & Nature Insects

Also means

hornet's nest

Usage Note

Vespaio literally means a wasp's nest, but its figurative use is far more common: sollevare un vespaio means 'to stir up a hornet's nest' — to provoke a storm of controversy. The plural is vespai. It is semantically close to polverone (big dust cloud, controversy) but implies a swarm of angry reactions.

Examples

"La sua dichiarazione ha sollevato un vespaio."

Natural Translation

His statement stirred up a hornet's nest.

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