Guest

Pronunciation

• enPR: gÄ•st, IPA: /É¡É›st/
• Rhymes: -É›st
• Homophones: guessed

Origin

From Middle English gest, from Old Norse gestr, replacing Old English ġiest, both from Proto-Germanic *gastiz, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰóstis ("stranger, guest, host, someone with whom one has reciprocal duties of hospitality"). Cognate with host.

Full definition of guest

Noun

1. A recipient of hospitality, specifically someone staying by invitation at the house of another.
   The guests were let in by the butler.
• 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 5, We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine. We passed on the way the van of the guests from Asquith.
2. A patron or customer in a hotel etc.
   Guests must vacate their rooms by 10 o'clock on their day of departure.
3. An invited visitor or performer to an institution or to a broadcast.
   The guest for the broadcast was a leading footballer.

Verb

1. (intransitive) to appear as a guest, especially on a broadcast
2. (intransitive) as a musician, to play as a guest, providing an instrument that a band/orchestra does not normally have in its line up (for instance, percussion in a string band)
3. (transitive, obsolete) To receive or entertain hospitably.

Derived terms

• guest of honour
• guest book
• guestfriendly
• guestfriendship
• guesthouse, guest house

Anagrams

• tegus