avast

American  

[uh-vast, uh-vahst] / əˈvæst, əˈvɑst /

verb

Nautical.

1. (used as a command to stop or cease).

   Avast heaving!

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avast British  

/ əˈvɑːst /

1. nautical stop! cease!

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Etymology

Origin of avast

1675–85; perhaps < Dutch houd vast hold fast ( see hold ¹, fast ¹)

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

avast

Look, to be honest with you, I am an avast carnivore, but I really adhere to the Southeast Asian model of meat eating.

From Salon ● Jul. 3, 2021

He answered questions so unhesitatingly, in such swift accents, that the shorthand reporters had to ask him to avast and go more slowly.

From Time Magazine Archive

His chief desire with regard to the other people in the play is that they should "belay there, avast!"

From Stage-Land by Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome

In a few minutes the second mate came up, hallooing to us to "avast," and laughing.

From Ned Myers or, a Life Before the Mast by James Fenimore Cooper

Some of the crew told their comrades that when the captain sung out "halt," he meant "avast," and that then they should all stop.

From A Journal of a Young Man of Massachusetts, 2nd ed. Late A Surgeon On Board An American Privateer, Who Was Captured At Sea By The British, In May, Eighteen Hundred And Thirteen, And Was Confined First, At Melville Island, Halifax, Then At Chatham, In England ... And Last, At Dartmoor Prison. Interspersed With Observations, Anecdotes And Remarks, Tending To Illustrate The Moral And Political Characters Of Three Nations. To Which Is Added, A Correct Engraving Of Dartmoor Prison, Representing The Massacre Of American Prisoners, Written By Himself. by Benjamin Waterhouse

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