whist

Noun

whist (countable and uncountable, plural whists)

1. Any of several four-player card games, similar to bridge.
   • "We have a loo in College every night-of course that is not every night, but most nights-not a big loo at all, you know, but just a small party of our own. I would almost rather we played whist myself, but the other fellows don't like whist, it's too awfully scientific; and at loo, you know, you...1900, W.E.W. Collins, A Scholar of His College, volume 900, page 151
2. A session of playing this card game.

Interjection

1. Onomatopoeia for slicing.
   • Well! she laid down her little golden head without fear; and whist! down came the axe, and it was off. So the mother wiped the axe and laughed.1890, Joseph Jacobs, “The Rose-Tree”, in English Fairy Tales, page 16

Verb

whist (third-person singular simple present whists, present participle whisting, simple past and past participle whisted)

1. (rare, transitive) To hush or shush; to still.
   • o was the Titaness put downe and whist1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
2. (intransitive, rare) To become silent.
   • The fields whist, beasts, and fowls of divers bue1557 July 1, Virgil, “The Fowrth Boke of Virgiles Aenæis”, in Henry [Howard, Earl] of Surrey, transl., edited by William Bolland, Certain Bokes of Virgiles Aenaeis, Turned into English Meter...

Adjective

whist (comparative more whist, superlative most whist)

1. (rare) Silent, hushed.
   • Come unto these yellow sands, / And then take hands: / Courtsied when you have and kiss'd / The wild waves whist, / Foot it featly here and there; / And, sweet sprites, the burthen bear.[…]1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...