(dated) An utterance used to discreetly attract someone's attention.
(dated) An injunction to be silent and/or to pay attention to what is being said or can be heard.
"My worthy Nelly! I am greatly rejoiced to find it is no other than thee. Hist! child, hist! Should Ishmael gain a knowledge of our plans, he would not hesitate to cast us both from this rock, upon the plain beneath. Hist! Nelly, hist!" 1827, James Fenimore Cooper, The Prairie: Chapter XI:
There’s a clue somewhere; wait a bit; hist—hark! By Jove, I have it! 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Chapter 99”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
1850, Edgar Allan Poe, Scenes from "Politian", 2009 [1902], Charles F. Richardson (editor), The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 1: Poems, page 87,
Hist! hist! thou canst not say / Thou hearest not now Baldazzar?,
Synonyms
shush (injunction to be quiet) · hey · hush (injunction to be quiet) · yo · whist (injunction to be quiet) · shh (injunction to be quiet) · psst (utterance used to attract someone's attention) · hark (injunction to pay attention)
Translations (6)
cs pšt (injunction to be silent) · nl sst (injunction to be silent) · cs pst (injunction to be silent) · af sjuut (injunction to be silent) · ru цыц (injunction to be silent) · ru тсс (injunction to be silent)
(dated) An instance of an exclamation attracting attention or injunction to be silent.
'A tinker!' repeated Sir Hugh, quite loud, in defiance of the signs and hists! hists! of Camilla, 'good lack! that's a person I should never have thought of!' 1796, Fanny Burney, Camilla, unnumbered page:
1952, R. A. Atkinson, Uncle Aaron Peddles a Possum, 2010 [1976], J. Mason Brewer (editor), Dog Ghosts and The Word on the Brazos (Combined edition), page 30,
When he spy de train a-comin' 'roun' de curve, he hists de hankershuf way up ovuh his haid for hit to stop, an' when de engineer rech de spot whar Unkuh Aaron stannin', he jumps down outen his seat to de groun' an asts Unkuh Aaron de why he stop de train.