Word of the Day

: June 11, 2013

hoise

verb HOYZ

What It Means

: lift, raise; especially : to raise into position by or as if by means of tackle

hoise in Context

Bethany was selected by her Girl Scout troop to hoise the American flag for Monday's Memorial Day ceremony on the town green.

"In order for [New England Patriot's quarterback Tom] Brady to play a great game, which is a must if the Pats want to hoise the Lombardi Trophy, he needs to stay upright." - From an article by Nick Curcuru and Michael Muldoon in the Gloucester Daily Times (Massachusetts), January 27, 2013

Did You Know?

Did you know? The connection between "hoise" and "hoist" is a bit confusing. The two words are essentially synonymous variants, but "hoist" is far more common. You'll rarely encounter "hoise" in any of its regular forms: "hoise," "hoised," or "hoising." 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 Shakespeare's Hamlet: "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.)