▪ I. † boist, n. Obs.
Forms: 3–5 boist(e, 4–7 boyste. Also 3 buste, 5 bust; 4, 6 bost, 6–7 boost(e; 4 bouste; 5 buist, buyste, 9 Sc. buist. See boost, buist, bust.
[ME. boiste, a. OF. boiste ‘box’, in Pr. bostia, repr., through late L. bossida, boxida, buxida, L. pyxida, a. Gr. πυξίδα, acc. of πυξίς box (Brachet). The phonetic history of the variant forms in Eng. and Sc. is obscure: but uy is prob. an early variant of oi, and the forms in o, u, seem due to simplification of the diphthong, as in 16th c. Sc. jone = join, etc.]
1. A box, a casket; chiefly used of a box for ointment, a vase or flask for oil, etc. (= box n.2 1.)
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 226 He haueð so monie bustes [v.r. boistes] ful of his letuaries. a 1300 Cursor M. 14003 (Gött.) A boist of smerles has scho nomin. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. xii. 68, I haue a gret boyste At my bak, of broke bred þi bely for to fylle. c 1375 ? Barbour St. Nicolaus 294 Scho has brocht A boyst of oyle. c 1400 Destr. Troy 883 He anoyntide hym anon with his noble boyste. c 1450 Lonelich Grail xvii. 131 The awngel took a boist with oynement anon. 1633 Treas. Hid. Secrets cxv, Also of the wood of Rosemarie, make a boyst to smell thereto. |
b. bleeding-boist: a cupping-glass.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 38 Bledynge boyste, ventosa, guna. |
2. Dialectal name for a rude hut. [? same word.]
| 1840 Times 24 Apr. 3/6 Along the London and Brighton line of Railway there have been erected a great number of rude huts or cabins..For the use of these places to sleep in, the workmen pay, each 1s. or 1s. 6d. a-week—two and not unfrequently three of them sleeping together in these ‘boists’. |
▪ II. † boist, v. Obs. rare.
[f. prec. n.]
trans. To cup, to scarify. (Cf. boist n. 1 b.)
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 42 Boyston, scaro, ventoso. |