Word | hoise |
---|---|
Date | March 14, 2020 |
Type | verb |
Syllables | HOYZ |
Etymology | The connection between hoise and hoist is a bit confusing. The two words are essentially synonymous variants, but hoist is far more common; hoise and its inflected forms hoised and hoising are infrequently used. But a variant of its past participle shows up fairly frequently as part of a set expression. And now, here's the confusing part: that variant past participle is hoist! The expression is "hoist with (or by) one's own petard," which means "victimized or hurt by one's own scheme." This oft-heard phrase owes its popularity to William Shakespeare's Hamlet in which the titular character says, "For 'tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petar[d]." (A petard is a medieval explosive. The quote implies that the engineer—the person who sets the explosive device—is blown into the air by the explosion of his own device.) |
Examples | "The closest Brennan has come to hoising the AHL's holy grail has been the conference finals on a couple of occasions, most recently with the Toronto Marlies." — Dave Isaac, The Courier-Post (Cherry Hill, New Jersey), 5 May 2018 "The 6-foot-3, 228-pound Ole Miss receiver ran a 4.33 40-yard dash, posted a 40.5 inch vertical and hoised 225 pounds on the bench 27 times." — James Koh, The Daily News (New York), 6 Mar. 2019 |
Definition | : lift, raise; especially : to raise into position by or as if by means of tackle |
Tags: wordoftheday::verb
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