roost

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A perch on which domestic fowl or other birds rest or sleep.
2. n. A place with perches for fowl or other birds.
3. n. A place for temporary rest or sleep.
4. v. To rest or sleep on or as if on a perch or roost.
5. idiom. come home to roost To have repercussions or aftereffects, especially unfavorable ones: The consequences of your mistake will eventually come home to roost.
6. idiom. rule the roost Informal To be in charge; dominate: In this house my parents rule the roost.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A pole or perch upon which fowls rest at night; any place upon which a bird may perch to rest; also, a locality where birds, as pigeons, habitually spend the night.
2. n. Hence A temporary abiding- or resting-place.
3. n. The fowls which occupy such a roost, collectively. A somewhat special application of the word (like rookery, 2) is to the roosts of some perching birds, which assemble in vast numbers, but not to breed, and for no obvious purpose that would not be as well attained without such congregation. Among conspicuous instances may be noted the roosts of the passenger-pigeon, sometimes several miles in extent, and the winter roosts of many thousands of crows (see crow, 2), which in the breeding season are dispersed. It is not generally known that the common robin of the United States sometimes forms such roosts in summer.
4. n. The inner roof of a cottage, composed of spars reaching from one wall to the other; a garret. Jamieson. [Scotch.]
5. To occupy a roost; perch, as a bird.
6. To stick or stay upon a resting-place; cling or adhere to a rest, as a limpet on a rock.
7. To set or perch, as a bird on a roost: used reflexively.
8. See roust.

Wiktionary

1. n. The place where a bird sleeps (usually its nest or a branch).
2. v. of birds sleep.
3. v. to come back home
4. n. UK, Shetland and Orkney A tidal race.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. obsolete Roast.
2. v. See roust, v. t.
3. n. The pole or other support on which fowls rest at night; a perch.
4. n. A collection of fowls roosting together.
5. v. To sit, rest, or sleep, as fowls on a pole, limb of a tree, etc.; to perch.
6. v. Fig.; To lodge; to rest; to sleep.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. sit, as on a branch
2. n. a shelter with perches for fowl or other birds
3. v. settle down or stay, as if on a roost
4. n. a perch on which domestic fowl rest or sleep