/hɔɪst/
OriginAlteration of earlier hoise (“to hoist”), apparently based on the past tense forms, from Middle Dutch hisen (“to hoist”). Compare modern Dutch hijsen (“to hoist”), German hissen (“to hoist”), Danish hejse (“to hoist”). Compare also French hisser (“to hoist”), Galician isar (“to hoist”), Spanish izar (“to hoist”), Catalan hissar (“to hoist”), Italian issare (“to hoist”),
Portuguese içar (“to hoist”), Sicilian jisari (“to hoist”), all borrowed from a Germanic source.
- transitiveTo raise; to lift; to elevate (especially, to raise or lift to a desired elevation, by means of tackle or pulley, said of a sail, a flag, a heavy package or weight).
“For tis the ſport to haue the enginer / Hoiſt with his ovvne petar, an't ſhall goe hard / But I vvill delue one yard belovve their mines, / And blovve them at the Moone: […]” — For it's amusing to have the engineer / Lifted into the sky with his own explosive, and if I'm lucky / I will dig one yard below their mines, / And blow them towards the Moon: […]
“They land my goods, and hoist my flying sails.”
“[Abasalom's] ambition would needs be fingering the sceptre, and hoisting him into his father's throne”
- figuratively, often, transitiveTo lift a trophy or similar prize into the air in celebration of a victory.
“And when skipper Richie McCaw hoisted the Webb Ellis Trophy high into the night, a quarter of a century of hurt was blown away in an explosion of fireworks and cheering.”
- historical, transitiveTo lift someone up to be flogged.
“Again Pilatus answered them, What shall I do to the Jew’s king? They again cried out and said, Hoist him! Then said Pilatus, What evil did he? They so much the more cried, Hoist him!”
- intransitiveTo be lifted up.
- transitiveTo extract (code) from a loop construct as part of optimization.
- slang, transitiveTo steal.
“When you’ve reached neutral territory, when you’ve stashed the loot hoisted from the warlord’s mansion – well, he didn't have much use for it any more, did he?”
- slang, transitiveTo rob.
“Why, it was nothing to travel about the country with fifty grand worth of ice on me. Suppose I hadn’t packed a roscoe—hell, I’d of been hoisted once a week!”
- Any member of certain classes of devices that hoist things.
- The act of hoisting; a lift.
“Give me a hoist over that wall.”
- The triangular vertical position of a flag, as opposed to the flying state, or triangular vertical position of a sail, when flying from a mast.
- The position of a flag (on a mast) or of a sail on a ship when lifted up to its highest level.
- The position of a main fore-and-aft topsail on a ship and fore fore-and-aft topsail on a ship.
Formshoists(present, singular, third-person) · hoisting(participle, present) · hoisted(participle, past) · hoisted(past) · hoist(participle, past) · hoist(past) · hoists(plural)