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whist

 - 4 dictionary results
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whist

1  [hwist, wist]
Use whist in a Sentence
–noun
a card game, an early form of bridge, but without bidding.
Origin:
1655–65; earlier whisk, perh. identical with whisk, though sense relationship uncert.
Cards Fun
9 great card games, Rummy, Spades, Canasta, Pinochle, Whist, Bezique
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whist

2  [hwist, wist]
–interjection
1. hush! silence! be still!
–adjective
2. hushed; silent; still.
–noun
3. Chiefly Irish. silence: Hold your whist.
–verb (used without object)
4. British Dialect. to be or become silent.
–verb (used with object)
5. British Dialect. to silence.
Also, whisht.

Origin:
1350–1400, ME; imit.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To whist
whist   (hwĭst, wĭst)   
n.  A card game ancestral to bridge, played with a full deck by two teams of two players, in which the last card dealt indicates trump, tricks of four cards are played, and a point is scored for each trick over six won by each team.

[Alteration (perhaps influenced by the exclamation whist, silence!) of obsolete and dialectal whisk, perhaps from whisk.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

whist 
card game, 1663, alteration of whisk "kind of card game," alluded to as early as 1529, 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" (M.E.).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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