(Corruption of hoist.) A violent fall. Ex. 'His foot slipped, and he got a hyst.' Mr. J. C. Neal thus discourses on this word: A fall, for instance, is indeterminate. It may be an easy slip down--a gentle visitation of mother earth; but a hyst is a rapid, forcible performance, which may be done either backward or forward, but of necessity with such violence as to knock the breath out of the body, or it is unworthy of the noble appellation of hyst. It is an apt, but figurative mode of expression, and it is often carried still further; for people sometimes say, "Lower him up, and hyst him down."--Charcoal Sketches.
I can't see the ground, and every dark night am sure to get a hyst--either a forrerd hyst or a backerd hyst, or some sort of a hyst, but more backerds than forrerds.--J. C. Neal, Sketches.