Also 7 ’st. [repr. a checked sibilation, instinctively felt as expressive; less exactly rendered by HIST, † IST ints. Cf. L. st (Plautus, Terence, etc.).]
1. An exclamation used to impose silence; = HUSH, WHIST.
1552. Huloet, St, a voyce of silence or taciturnitye or thus husht, or else it may be sayde st, st, wherby dogge incited or prouoked to fight.
1598. Florio, Zita, an aduerbe to commaund or perswade silence, as we say isse, whosht or st.
1762. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, V. i. 14. St, st,—said a second,—hush, quoth a third.
1841. Browning, Pippa Passes, I. St—st!
† b. Used as adj. Hushed, silent. Cf. WHIST a.
1654. H. L’Estrange, Chas. I. (1655), 69. For three dayes all was so ’st, so calm on both sides.
2. An exclamation used to drive away an animal, or to urge it to attack.
1552. [see 1].
1841. S. Warren, Ten Thousand a Year, III. ii. 36. Off! off!… Go home! ah! ah!… St! St!
