Dictionary

hest en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /hɛst/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Middle English heste, alteration of Middle English hes, from Old English hǣs (“command”). Akin to Old English hātan "to command". More at hight.

Meanings

1. (obsolete) Command, injunction.
   • Fer[dinand]. […] VVhat is your name? / Mir[anda]. Miranda, O my Father, / I haue broke your heſt to ſay ſo. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], page 11, column 1:
   • [T]hou [Ariel] vvaſt a Spirit too delicate / To act her [the witch Sycorax's] earthy, and abhord commands, / Refuſing her grand heſts, ſhe did confine thee / By helpe of her more potent Miniſters, / And in her moſt vnmittigable rage, / Into a cloven Pyne, […] 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 4, column 1:

Forms

Relateds

behest

Translations (2)

ru приказа́ние (command, injunction) · ru прика́з (command, injunction)