chest

English

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English Wikipedia has articles on:

chest (disambiguation) and chest

Wikipedia Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃɛst/
• (dialectal, obsolete) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃɪst/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛst

Etymology 1

From Middle English cheste, chiste, from Old English ċest, ċist (“chest, casket; coffin; rush basket; box”), from Proto-West Germanic *kistu (“chest, box”), from Latin cista (“chest, box”), from Ancient Greek κίστη (kístē, “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)

Noun

chest (plural chests)

1. A box, now usually a large strong box with a secure convex lid.

   The clothes are kept in a chest.

   • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., , →OCLC:

     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, and a 'bead' could be drawn upon Molly, the dairymaid, kissing the fogger behind the hedge, […].

2. (obsolete) A coffin.
3. The place in which public money is kept; a treasury.

   You can take the money from the chest.

4. A chest of drawers.
6. (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.

7. (euphemistic) A female human's breasts.
8. A hit or blow made with one's chest.

   She scored with a chest into the goal.

Synonyms

• (the thorax): breast
• (box): trunk

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

chest (third-person singular simple present chests, present participle chesting, simple past and past participle chested)

1. To hit with one's chest (front of one's body)
   • 2011 January 23, Alistair Magowan, “Blackburn 2 - 0 West Brom”, in BBC‎:

     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.

2. (transitive) To deposit in a chest.
3. (transitive, obsolete) To place in a coffin.

Derived terms

• chest down

Etymology 2

From Middle English chest, cheste, cheeste, cheaste, from Old English ċēast, ċēas (“strife, quarrel, quarrelling, contention, murmuring, sedition, scandal; reproof”). Related to Old Frisian kāse (“strife, contention”), Old Saxon caest (“quarrel, dispute”), Old High German kōsa (“speech, story, account”).

Noun

chest (plural chests)

1. Debate; quarrel; strife; enmity.

References

Anagrams

• Tesch, chets, techs

Friulian

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *eccum iste (see there for cognates), from Latin eccum (“behold”) + iste (“that”). Compare Ladin chest and Romansch quest.

Pronoun

chest m (f cheste, m pl chescj, f pl chestis)

1. this

See also

• chel

Ladin

Alternative forms

• chëst

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *eccum iste, from Latin eccum + iste. Compare Friulian chest, Romansch quest, Italian questo.

Adjective

chest m (feminine singular chesta, masculine plural chisc, feminine plural chestes)

1. this
2. (in the plural) these

Lombard

Alternative forms

• cuest (formal variant)
• quest (Western orthography)

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *eccum iste, from Latin eccum (deictic) +‎ iste (“that”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkest/
  • IPA^(key): ,

Usage notes

When followed by a word starting with consonant, it's often pronounced without the ending /t/.

Determiner

chest m (feminine singular chesta, masculine plural chestj, feminine plural cheste)

1. this

Pronoun

chest m (feminine singular chesta, masculine plural chestj, feminine plural cheste)

1. this
2. this one

Synonyms

• chell chí, cuell chí

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English ċeast, ceas (“quarrel, strife”).

Alternative forms

• cheste, cheeste, cheaste, chyaste, chast

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃɛːst/
• Rhymes: -ɛːst

Noun

chest (plural chestes)

2. fighting, strife, battle
3. quarrelling, disputation
   • c. 1385, William Langland, Piers Plowman, section II:

     And þe Erldome of enuye · and wratthe togideres / With þe chastelet of chest · and chateryng oute of resoun.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

4. (rare) turmoil, discord

Descendants

• English: chest

References

• “chēst, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-26.

Etymology 2

Noun

chest

2. Alternative form of geste (“tale”)

Etymology 3

Noun

chest

2. Alternative form of cheste (“chest”)

Old French

Adjective

chest m (oblique and nominative feminine singular cheste)

1. Picardy form of cist

Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /χɛst/

Verb

chest

1. Aspirate mutation of cest.

Mutation