avast

English

Etymology

From the Dutch hou vast (“hold tight”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈvɑːst/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /əˈvæst/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æst, -ɑːst

Interjection

avast

1. (nautical) hold fast!; desist!; stay!.
   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 17, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 93:

     “I don’t allow it; I won’t have my premises spoiled. Go for the locksmith, there’s one about a mile from here. But avast!” putting her hand in her side-pocket, “here’s a key that’ll fit, I guess; let’s see.”

   • 1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Mucker‎^[1], All-Story Cavalier Weekly:

     "Avast there!" cried the captain, and as though to punctuate his remark he swung the heavy stick he usually carried full upon the back of Billy's head.

2. (slang, in imitation of pirates) listen!; pay attention!

   Avast, ye landlubbers!

Usage notes

• “Avast hauling!” (meaning, “stop hauling”) is (or was, in 1950) still commonly used in U.S. Navy deck operations.
• The slang use in imitation of pirate talk is based on a misconstrual of the meaning. If uttered by a historical sailor, the meaning of the sentence “Avast, ye Matey” would have been, “Desist, you novice seamen”.

Synonyms

• (hold fast): See Thesaurus:avast
• (pay attention): See Thesaurus:heads up

Anagrams

• Vasta, tavas

Estonian

Noun

avast

1. elative singular of ava

Tocharian B

Alternative forms

• avasth

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Sanskrit अवस्था (avasthā).

Noun

avast ?

1. condition, state

Derived terms

• avasthaṣṣe

Further reading

• Adams, Douglas Q. (2013) “avast(h)”, in A Dictionary of Tocharian B: Revised and Greatly Enlarged (Leiden Studies in Indo-European; 10), Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi, →ISBN, page 32