▪ I. st, int.
(st)
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 maye be sayde st, st, wherby dogges 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 Thou. a Year III. ii. 36 Off! off!.. Go home! ah! ah!.. St! St! |
▪ II. st, 'st
see shall v. A 5 β.
| 1675 Cotton Scoffer Scoft 59 Hee st give me kisses half a score. |
▪ III. st
Abbreviation for various words: a. (with cap.) for saint prefixed to a name; b. (with cap. or small initial) for street preceded by a defining word, forming the name of a street; c. in references (a) for stanza; (b) for statute; d. for stone (weight); e. for stumped (by) in Cricket. Cf. stump v.1 8.