hoist / hoist/ • v. [tr.] raise (something) by means of ropes and pulleys: high overhead great cranes hoisted girders. ∎  [tr.] raise or haul up: she hoisted her backpack onto her shoulder.• n. 1. an act of raising or lifting something. ∎ fig. an act of increasing something: the government's interest rate hoist. ∎  an apparatus for lifting or raising something.2. the part of a flag nearest the staff; the vertical dimension of a flag.3. a group of flags raised as a signal.PHRASES: hoist one's flag (of an admiral) take up command.hoist the flag stake one's claim to discovered territory by displaying a flag.hoist by one's own petard see petard.DERIVATIVES: hoist·er n.ORIGIN: late 15th cent.: alteration of dialect hoise, probably from Dutch hijsen or Low German hiesen, but recorded earlier.

hoist vb. XVI. alt. of hoise (XVI), earlier hys(s)e (XV), Sc. heis (XVI); prob. — Du. hijschen or LG. hissen, hiesen, but the Eng. forms are earlier than any cited from elsewhere. The word appears early as an int. used in hauling: Eng. hissa, heisau, etc.