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definitions

whist

1
[ hwist, wist ]
/ ʰwɪst, wɪst /
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noun

a card game, an early form of bridge, but without bidding.

RELATED WORDS

reticent, soft, silent, peaceful, muted, reserved, mute, muffled, low, close, still, closed, smooth, stock-still, pacific, halcyon, static, sealed, stable

Nearby words

  1. whispering gallery,
  2. whisperingly,
  3. whisperous,
  4. whisperously,
  5. whispery,
  6. whist drive,
  7. whistle,
  8. whistle dixie,
  9. whistle for,
  10. whistle in the dark

Origin of whist

1
1655–65; earlier whisk, perhaps identical with whisk, though sense relationship uncertain

Definition for whist (2 of 2)

Also whisht.

Origin of whist

2
1350–1400, Middle English; imitative
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for whist

British Dictionary definitions for whist (1 of 2)

whist

1
/ (wɪst) /

noun

a card game for four in which the two sides try to win the balance of the 13 tricks: forerunner of bridge

Word Origin for whist

C17: perhaps changed from whisk, referring to the sweeping up or whisking up of the tricks

British Dictionary definitions for whist (2 of 2)

whist

2
/ (hwist) /

interjection, adjective, verb

a variant of whisht
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for whist

whist

n.

card game, 1660s, alteration of whisk "kind of card game," alluded to as early as 1520s, perhaps so called from the notion of "whisking" up cards after each trick; altered perhaps from assumption that it was an interjection invoking silence, from whist "silent" (Middle English).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper