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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
whist
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Consider the card games, whist and bridge.
▪ I have sometimes wondered if they, Cooper and McMahon ever managed to get together for a rubber of whist or bridge.
▪ Popular games normally are: whist, rummy, scrabble, draughts, dominoes or poker.
▪ Psycho was a cross-legged Hindu figure, twenty-two inches high, which played whist with the audience.
▪ Some played whist, but everyone danced.
▪ The whist drives for the school - you can take part in the preparations.
▪ They'd enjoyed a game of snap or whist or gin rummy.
▪ Tunstall does have a village hall where whist drives and an annual coffee evening are held.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Whist

Whist \Whist\, v. t. [From Whist, interj.] To hush or silence. [Obs.]
--Spenser.

Whist

Whist \Whist\, v. i. To be or become silent or still; to be hushed or mute. [R.]
--Surrey.

Whist

Whist \Whist\, a. [Properly p. p. of whist, v.] Not speaking; not making a noise; silent; mute; still; quiet. ``So whist and dead a silence.''
--Sir J. Harrington.

The winds, with wonder whist, Smoothly the waters kissed.
--Milton.

Note: This adjective generally follows its noun, or is used predicatively.

Whist

Whist \Whist\, interj. [Cf. G. st! pst! bst! ???. Cf. Hist.] Be silent; be still; hush; silence.

Whist

Whist \Whist\, n. [From Whist, interj.] A certain game at cards; -- so called because it requires silence and close attention. It is played by four persons (those who sit opposite each other being partners) with a complete pack of fifty-two cards. Each player has thirteen cards, and when these are played out, the hand is finished, and the cards are again shuffled and distributed.

Note: Points are scored for the tricks taken in excess of six, and for the honors held. In long whist, now seldom played, ten points make the game; in short whist, now usually played in England, five points make the game. In American whist, so-called, honors are not counted, and seven points by tricks make the game.

Bridge whist. See Bridge, n., above.

Duplicate whist, a form of whist in playing which the hands are preserved as dealt and played again by other players, as when each side holds in the second round the cards played by the opposing side in the first round.

Solo whist. See Solo whist, above.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
whist

card game for four, 1660s, alteration of whisk, name of a kind of card game, alluded to as early as 1520s, perhaps so called from the notion of "whisking" up cards after each trick, and thus from whisk (v.). Altered perhaps on assumption that the word was an interjection invoking silence, by influence of whist "silent" (15c.).

Wiktionary
whist
  1. (lb en rare) silent. interj. (alternative spelling of whisht English) Silence! Quiet! Hush! Shhh! n. 1 Any of several four-player card games, similar to bridge. 2 sessions of playing the card game. v

  2. 1 (context transitive rare English) To hush or silence; to still. 2 (context intransitive rare English) To become silent.

WordNet
whist

n. a card game for four players who form two partnerships; a pack of 52 cards is dealt and each side scores one point for each trick it takes in excess of six [syn: long whist, short whist]

Wikipedia
Whist

Whist is a classic English trick-taking card game which was widely played in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although the rules are extremely simple, there is enormous scope for scientific play.

Usage examples of "whist".

He remembered Sperling well, had played whist with him at Brooks many a time.

In whist there are some men you always prefer to have on your left hand, and I take it that this intuitive essayist, who is so alert to seize the few remaining unappropriated ideas and analogies in the world, is one of them.

Taking a quick turn into the smoke-choked cardroom, she dragged him along to the table where Lord Howard was playing whist.

He danced attendance on her like the most obedient cavalier servente, fetching her glasses of champagne punch, opening windows when she was warm, bringing her wrap when she was cool, even sitting through endlessly dull rounds of whist and losing large sums of money just for the pleasure of sitting across from her.

While Lady Harrington was making up a rubber at whist, she asked me if I had any other letters for ladies.

Fogg, after bidding good-bye to his whist partners, left the steamer, gave his servant several errands to do, urged it upon him to be at the station promptly at eight, and, with his regular step, which beat to the second, like an astronomical clock, directed his steps to the passport office.

I abstained from Welsh rarebits and grog that evening, and did not even join in the customary game of whist.

Late in the evenings club members with a taste for whist or macao could frequently be found at the green baize tables, still elegantly garbed in the gowns they had worn earlier to a ball.

The count arranged a game of whist, and Walpole played at primero with the countess, who cheated him in a masterly manner.

I played a rubber of whist for very small stakes, and lost fifteen guineas, which I paid on the spot.

However, after wondering what was to be done with the creams and the aspics and the stuffed birds, she hit upon the happy notion of inviting a few of the guests bidden to the ball to come to dinner instead, quite informally, of course, and to spend a quiet, conversible evening, with perhaps a few rubbers of whist, but no music.

She was again and publicly invited up to the parlor, and she came, though she said, rather shortly, that she didn't play Five Hundred, but only bumblepuppy bridge, a variety of whist which Mr.

Twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, he dined at that old law club, the Eldon, and played whist after dinner till twelve o'clock.

Butler had told her that Sally Brewton gave very exciting whist parties and she was sure to be invited.

Fogg, after bidding good-bye to his whist partners, left the steamer, gave his servant several errands to do, urged it upon him to be at the station promptly at eight, and, with his regular step, which beat to the second, like a astronomical clock, directed his steps to the passport office.