avast
UK/əˈvɑːst/US/əˈvæst/
avast interjection: hold fast! Cease! Stop! Desist!
Interjection
(nautical)
- Hold fast! Cease! Stop! Desist!
- Then pull avvay, hoa up, hoa up, hoa up, ſo avaſt there, Sir.1681, Thomas Otway, The Souldiers Fortune: A Comedy. […], London: […] R. Bentley and M. Magnes, […], →OCLC, Act IV, page 51
- Avaſt, brother, avaſt! ſheer off—Yo ho! you turnkey, vvhy don't you keep a better look out? here's one of your crazy priſoners broke from his laſhings, I do ſuppoſe.1748, [Tobias Smollett], “I am Seized with a Deep Melancholy, and Become a Sloven […]”, in The Adventures of Roderick Random. […], volume II, London: […] [William Strahan] for J[ohn] Osborn […]...
- Listen! Pay attention!
- Avast, ye landlubbers!
- [“Pirate Talk: How to Make It Work for You”, page 35] Avast—"Stop and give attention." It can be used in a sense of surprise: "Whoa! Get a load of that!" when a beautiful woman walks into the room. "Avast! Check out the bowsprit on that fine beauty!" you might say. […] [“Cap’n Slappy’s Practical...2005 September, John Baur, Mark Summers, Piratitude! So You Wanna be a Pirate? Here’s How!, New York, N.Y.: New American Library, →ISBN, pages 35 and 166
- Synonyms:
- avast [⇒ thesaurus]!, beware!, blackfriars!, cave!, cheese it!, heads up!, hey up!, hist!, look alive!, look lively!
avast meaning in Tamil
avast in Tamil
- கெட்டியாகப்பிடி, நிறுத்து
Examples of avast in a sentence
- "Avast heaving," said Gascoigne, "till I throw her up and take the wind out of it."1836, [Frederick Marryat], “In which our hero sets off on another cruise, in which he is not blown off shore”, in Mr. Midshipman Easy […]...
- But avast!" putting her hand in her side-pocket, "here's a key that'll fit, I guess; let's see." And with that, she turned it in the lock; but, alas!1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Ramadan”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers...
- "Avast there!" cried the captain, and as though to punctuate his remark he swung the heavy stick he usually carried full upon the back of Billy's head.1914 October – 1916 July, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Shanghaied”, in The Mucker, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., published...
- "Avast, ye dog thief!" he roared to the man.2008, Nadia Higgins, Avast, Ye Dog Thief! (Barnacle Barb & Her Pirate Crew), Edina, Minn.: Magic Wagon, ABDO Publishing Group, →ISBN:
Synonyms of avast
25 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- look alive!
- look lively!
- look out!
- look sharp!
- mind out!
- namous!
- take care!
- ware!
- watch it!
- watch out!
- avast!
- cut it out!
- enough!
- give it a break!
- halt!
- have done!
- hold!
- hold fast!
- knock it off!
- leave off!
- not so fast!
- stay!
- stop [⇒ thesaurus]!
- whoa!
- soft
Origin of avast
Probably borrowed from Dutch hou vast, houd vast (“hold fast!”), from houd (imperative of houden, “to hold”) + vast (“fast, firm, tight”). Doublet of hold fast.
Words that rhyme with avast
4 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about avast
- What does avast mean?
- Avast means hold fast! Cease! Stop! Desist!
- What is avast in Tamil?
- Avast in Tamil is கெட்டியாகப்பிடி, நிறுத்து. See Avast meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use avast in a sentence?
- "Avast heaving," said Gascoigne, "till I throw her up and take the wind out of it."
- What part of speech is avast?
- Avast is an interjection.
- How do you pronounce avast?
- Avast is pronounced /əˈvɑːst/ (UK).
Words near avast in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: avast (page history and authors); avast (Tamil 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-avast.ogg.
Cite this entry: “avast.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/avast. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.