vest

Etymology

From French veste (“a vest, jacket”), from Latin vestis (“a garment, gown, robe, vestment, clothing, vesture”), from Proto-Indo-European *wes-ti(h₂)-, from *wes- (“to be dressed”) (English wear).

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛst

Noun

vest (plural vests)

1. (now rare) A loose robe or outer garment worn historically by men in Arab or Middle Eastern countries.
2. (now Canada, US) A sleeveless garment that buttons down the front, worn over a shirt, and often as part of a suit; a waistcoat.
   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 10, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     The Jones man was looking at her hard. Now he reached into the hatch of his vest and fetched out a couple of cigars, everlasting big ones, with gilt bands on them.

3. (Britain) A sleeveless garment, often with a low-cut neck, usually worn under a shirt or blouse.
4. A sleeveless top, typically with identifying colours or logos, worn by an athlete or member of a sports team.
5. Any sleeveless outer garment, often for a purpose such as identification, safety, or storage.
   • 2010, Thomas Mullen, The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers, Random House, →ISBN, page 162:

     He gripped some of the shreds and pulled off his vest and the shirt beneath it, his clothing disintegrating around him. What in the hell point was there in wearing a twenty-five-pound bulletproof vest if you could still get gunned to death?

6. A vestment.
   • John Dryden (1631-1700)

     In state attended by her maiden train, / Who bore the vests that holy rites require.

7. Clothing generally; array; garb.
   • William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

     Not seldom clothed in radiant vest / Deceitfully goes forth the morn.

Verb

vest (third-person singular simple present vests, present participle vesting, simple past and past participle vested)

1. To clothe with, or as with, a vestment, or garment; to dress; to robe; to cover, surround, or encompass closely.
   • Milton

     Came vested all in white, pure as her mind.

   • Dryden

     With ether vested, and a purple sky.

2. To clothe with authority, power, etc.; to put in possession; to invest; to furnish; to endow; followed by with and the thing conferred.

   to vest a court with power to try cases of life and death

   • Prior

     Had I been vested with the monarch's power.

3. To place or give into the possession or discretion of some person or authority; to commit to another; with in before the possessor.

   The power of life and death is vested in the king, or in the courts.

   • John Locke

     Empire and dominion was vested in him.

4. (obsolete) To invest; to put.

   to vest money in goods, land, or houses

5. (law) To clothe with possession; also, to give a person an immediate fixed right of present or future enjoyment of.

   to vest a person with an estate

   an estate is vested in possession

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Bouvier to this entry?)

6. (commonly used of financial arrangements) To become vested, to become permanent.

   My pension vests at the end of the month and then I can take it with me when I quit.

   • 2005, Kaye A. Thomas, Consider Your Options, page 104

     If you doubt that you'll stick around at the company long enough for your options to vest, you should discount the value for that uncertainty as well.

   • 2007, Ransey Guy Cole, Jr. (United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit), Roger Miller Music, Inc. v. Sony ATV Publishing, LLC

     Sony interpreted 17 U.S.C. § 304 as requiring that the author be alive at the start of the copyright renewal term for the author’s prior assignments to vest.

Further reading

• vest in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• vest in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• vest at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• ETVs, vets

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vɛst/, [ʋɛsd̥]

Etymology 1

From Old Norse vestr, from Proto-Germanic *westrą.

Etymology 2

From French veste.

References

• “vest” in Den Danske Ordbog

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɛst

• audio

  (file)

Etymology 1

Etymology 2

Verb

vest tr. or intr., 1st conj., pres. vedu, ved, ved, past vedu

1. to lead

Etymology 1

From Old Norse vestr, from Proto-Germanic *westrą.

Etymology 2

From Latin vestis, via French and Italian.

Etymology 1

From Old Norse vestr, from Proto-Germanic *westrą.

Etymology 2

From Latin vestis, via French and Italian.

Etymology

Borrowed from German West.

Noun

vest n (uncountable)

1. west

See also

• nord
• sud
• est

Etymology

From a Germanic language.

Noun

vest m

1. west

Alternative forms

• (Ijekavian) vijȇst

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *věstь, from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see, know, perceive”).

Noun

vȇst f (Cyrillic spelling ве̑ст)

1. report, news

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʋéːst/
• Tonal orthography: vẹ̑st

Noun

vést f (genitive vestí, nominative plural vestí)

1. conscience