▪ I. kist, n.1 Sc. and north. dial.
(kɪst)
Forms: (1 cest, cist, cyst), 3–5 kiste, 4– kist, (4–6 kyst(e, 4 kystte, 6 keste).
[Northern form of chest n.1; either directly from Scandinavian, or owing its form to Norse influence; cf. ON. kista, Sw. kista, Da. kiste; also Du. kist, Ger. kiste. With the various senses, cf. chest 1, 3, 4, 5.]
1. a. A chest, box, coffer. (In Sc. the specific term for a servant's trunk.)
| c 1300 Havelok 2018 Al þat he milhen [= hy mihten] fynde Of hise, in arke or in kiste. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. C. 159 Ouerborde bale to kest,..Her kysttes & her coferes. c 1420 Sir Amadace (Camden) xliv, Kistes and cofurs bothe ther stode,..fulle of gold precius and gode. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. II. 21 All tha buikis tha kist hes brocht till. 1792 A. Wilson Watty & Meg in Chambers' Pop. Hum. Scot. Poems (1862) 82 On a kist he laid his wallet. 1825 Brockett, Kist, a chest. 1888 Pall Mall G. 9 June 3/2 It bears the strongest family resemblance to carvings on the old Cumberland kists. 1958 Personality 4 Dec. 27/3 Ancient brass-bound kists of teak help to furnish the back stoep. 1959 Star (Johannesburg) 22 Jan. 7/4 (Advt.), Heavy bowfronted kists price cut to {pstlg}15:19:6. 1971 Cape Times 13 Feb. 21/3 (Advt.), Furniture and effects..walnut bedroom suite, easy chairs..several large teak glass fronted cupboards, 2 carved Zanzibar camphor-wood kists. 1971 Leader (Durban) 7 May 15 (Advt.), Imbuia Kist..R29.00. |
† b. Applied to the ‘ark’ of bulrushes in which Moses was placed; and to Noah's ark. Obs.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 5614–17 (Cott.) A rescen [MS. An esscen] kyst [Gött. a kist of rises] sco did be wroght,..In þis kist þe barn sco did. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 449 ‘Now Noe’, quoth oure lorde, ‘..Hatz þou closed þy kyst with clay alle aboute?’ |
c. kist o' whistles, whustles, an organ (organ n.1 2). Now rare.
| 1772 A. Ramsay New Misc. Scots Sangs [Tea-Table Misc.] 141 The Kist fou of Whistles, That make sic a Cleiro. 1828 J. Ruddiman Tales & Sk. 60 To cram down our craigs, will we, nill we, their kists o'whistles. 1866 Engel Nat. Mus. viii. 272 The instances where an organ—or a ‘a kist o' whistles’, as this noble instrument has been termed—has gained favour in a Scotch congregation, are exceptional. 1889 G. B. Shaw London Music in 1888–89 (1937) 116 M. Gigout, who was performing on the ‘Kist o' whustles’. 1891 R. Ford Thistledown vi. 106 There was no such thing as an organ, or ‘kist o' whustles’, in any Presbyterian kirk in the land. 1936 Discovery July 223/2 The normal ‘kist of whistles’ would spoil the architectural effect. 1947 ‘H. MacDiarmid’ (title) A kist of whistles. 1969 C. Geeson Northumberland & Durham Word Bk. 118 Kist o' whistles, an organ in Scotland and Northumberland. |
2. A basket. (Cf. chest n.1 4.)
| 1724 in Ramsay Tea-t. Misc. (1733) I. 29 Ane auld kist made with wands, And that sall be your coffer. 1861 A. H. Clington F. O'Donnell 35 Servant maids..were collected around a kist or basket of potatoes..peeling them for the colcannon. |
3. A chest or place in which money is kept; a treasury; also transf. the store of money itself.
| 1619 Fletcher Loy. Subj. iii. iii, When the kist increased not. 1816 Scott Antiq. xxiv, Yon kist is only silver, and I aye heard that Misticot's pose had muckle yellow gowd in 't. |
4. a. A coffin; a stone coffin or sarcophagus.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 21018 Siþen was his bodi..laid in kist o marbil stan. c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 3439 Þar ligges a kist on þe north syde. a 1555 Lyndesay Tragedie 266 Thay Saltit me, syne cloist me in ane kyste. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. vii. 35 In a kist of leid he is laid. 1721 Kelly Sc. Prov. 6 A' that you'll get will be a kist and a sheet after all. 1855 Robinson Whitby Gloss. s.v., ‘A kirk garth kist’, a churchyard chest, a coffin. |
b. Archæol. = cist1, kistvaen.
| 1853 Phillips Rivers Yorksh. viii. 208 In a conspicuous barrow..The kist contained a female skeleton. 1866 Laing Preh. Rem. Caithn. 45 This kist contained an extended male skeleton with a rude flint spear-head. 1868 G. Stephens Runic Mon. I. 255 In this kist lay four glazed pots or urns..full of ashes and bones and charcoal. |
Hence ˈkistful, as much as fills a kist.
| ? c 1644 Lesly's March in Scott Minstr. Scott. Bord., The kist-fou of whistles, That mak sick a cleiro. 1816 Scott Antiq. xxiv, Sic another kistfu' o' silver. |
▪ II. ‖ kist, n.2 East Ind.
[Urdū (Pers., Arab.) qisṭ portion, instalment.]
An instalment (of the yearly land revenue or other payment). Hence kist-bundy: see quot. 1764.
| 1764 Ann. Reg. 192/2 Kistbundee, a contract for the acquittance of a debt by stated payments. 1799 Mrq. Wellesley in Owen Desp. (1877) 188 Purneah had discharged the first monthly kist of the subsidy stipulated by the late treaty. 1805 Sir J. Malcolm in Sir J. Kaye Life (1856) I. xiii. 346 We expect three or four lakhs of the kist due a twelvemonth hence to be paid immediately. 1818 Jas. Mill Brit. India vi. vii. (1830) VI. 63 Those districts, which are pledged for the security of his kists. |
▪ III. kist, v. Sc. and north. dial.
[f. kist n.1 Cf. Du. and Ger. kisten.]
trans. To put into a ‘kist’ or coffin.
| a 1670 Spalding Troub. Chas. I (1851) II. 390 Johne Logei's heid wes first keppit and kistet, and both togidder wes convoyit to the Gray Freir kirkyaird and bureit. 1808–18 Jamieson, Kistin', Kisting, the act of putting a corpse into a coffin, with the entertainment given on this melancholy occasion. 1876 Whitby Gloss. s.v. Kisted, ‘I wad fain see thee kisted’..I should like to see you dead. 1882 J. Walker Jaunt to Auld Reekie 179 Kisted mummies from the tombs of Thebes. |
▪ IV. kist
occas. pa. tense and pa. pple. of kiss v.
▪ V. kist(e
obs. pa. tense of cast v.