Chest
Pronunciation
- IPA: /t͡ʃɛst/
- Rhymes: -ɛst
Origin 1
From Middle English cheste, chiste, from Old English ċest, ċist ("chest, casket; coffin; rush basket; box"), from Proto-Germanic *kistŠ("chest, box"), from Latin cista ("chest, box"), from Ancient Greek κίστη (kistē, "chest, box, basket, hamper"), from Proto-Indo-European *kisteh₂ ("woven container"). Germanic cognates include Scots kist ("chest, box, trunk, coffer"), West Frisian kiste ("box, chest"), Dutch kist ("box, case, chest, coffin"), German Kiste ("box, crate, case, chest").
Alternative forms
- chist obsolete
Full definition of chest
Noun
chest
(plural chests)- A box, now usually a large strong box with a secure convex lid.The clothes are kept in a chest.
- 1879, Richard Jefferies, The Amateur Poacher Chapter 1, But then I had the massive flintlock by me for protection. ¶...The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window at the old mare feeding in the meadow below by the brook,....
- (obsolete) A coffin.
- The place in which public money is kept; a treasury.You can take the money from the chest.
- A chest of drawers.
- (thorax)(anatomy) The portion of the front of the human body from the base of the neck to the top of the abdomen; the thorax. Also the analogous area in other animals.She had a sudden pain in her chest.
- A hit or blow made with one's chest (the front of one's body).He scored with a chest into the goal.
Derived terms
Verb
- To hit with one's chest (front of one's body)
- 2011, January 23, Alistair Magowan, Blackburn 2 - 0 West Brom, Pedersen fed Kalinic in West Brom's defensive third and his chested lay-off was met on the burst by the Canadian who pelted by Tamas and smashed the ball into the top of Myhill's net.
- (transitive) To deposit in a chest.
- (transitive, obsolete) To place in a coffin.
- Bible, Genesis 1. 26He dieth and is chested.
Origin 2
From Middle English cheste, cheeste, cheaste, from Old English Ä‹Ä“ast, Ä‹Ä“as ("strife, quarrel, quarrelling, contention, murmuring, sedition, scandal; reproof"). Related to Old Frisian kÄse ("strife, contention"), Old Saxon caest ("quarrel, dispute"), Old High German kÅsa ("speech, story, account").