Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A support for a lance on the side of the breastplate of medieval armor.
- noun The part that is left over after something has been removed; remainder.
- noun That or those remaining.
- intransitive verb To be or continue to be; remain.
- intransitive verb To remain or be left over.
- noun A period of inactivity, relaxation, or sleep.
- noun Sleep or the refreshment resulting from inactivity or sleep.
- noun The repose of death.
- noun Mental or emotional calm.
- noun The state of being motionless; the absence of motion.
- noun The condition of being settled or resolved.
- noun An interval of silence corresponding to one of the possible time values within a measure.
- noun The mark or symbol indicating such a pause and its length.
- noun A short pause in a line of poetry; a caesura.
- noun A device used as a support.
- intransitive verb To cease motion, work, or activity, especially in order to become refreshed.
- intransitive verb To lie down and sleep.
- intransitive verb To be in or come to a motionless state.
- intransitive verb To be located or be in a specified place.
- intransitive verb To be fixed or directed on something.
- intransitive verb To be unchanged or unresolved.
- intransitive verb To be supported or based; lie, lean, or sit.
- intransitive verb To be imposed or vested, as a responsibility or burden.
- intransitive verb To depend or rely.
- intransitive verb Law To complete the main presentation of one's portion of a legal case.
- intransitive verb To cause or allow to be inactive or relaxed so as to regain energy.
- intransitive verb To place, lay, or lean, as for support or repose.
- intransitive verb To base or ground.
- intransitive verb To fix or direct (the gaze, for example).
- intransitive verb Law To complete the main presentation of (one's portion of a case).
- idiom (at rest) Asleep.
- idiom (at rest) Dead.
- idiom (at rest) Motionless; inactive.
- idiom (at rest) Free from anxiety or distress.
- idiom (lay/put) To bury (a dead body); inter.
- idiom (lay/put) To resolve or settle (an issue, for example).
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A state of quiet or repose; absence or cessation of motion, labor, or action of any kind; release from exertion or action.
- noun Freedom or relief from everything that disquiets, wearies, or disturbs; peace; quiet; security; tranquillity.
- noun Sleep; slumber; hence, the last sleep; death; the grave.
- noun Stay; abode.
- noun That on or in which anything leans or lies for support.
- noun Specifically— A contrivance for steadying the lance when couched for the charge: originally a mere loop or stirrup, usually of leather, perhaps passed over the shoulder, but when the cuirass or breastplate was introduced seemed to a hook or projecting horn of iron riveted to this on the left side. This hook also is called
rest . A similar hook was sometimes arranged so far at the side, and so projecting, as to receive the lance itself; but, this form being inconvenient, the projecting hook was arranged with a hinge. In the justs of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the heavy lance was found to require a counterpoise, and the rest was made double, the hook projecting sidewise and a long tongue or bar projecting backward under the arm with a sort of spiral twist at the end to prevent the butt of the lance from rising, so that the lance was held firmly, and required from the juster only the exertion of directing its point. - noun A device of any kind for supporting the turning-tool or the work in a lathe.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word rest.
Examples
-
But it must be followed by rest from mental labour, and is, in fact, a part of the same regimen which enforces rest -- it is an artificial _rest_.
Study and Stimulants; Or, the Use of Intoxicants and Narcotics in Relation to Intellectual Life Alfred Arthur Reade
-
But inasmuch as the recurrence of the _Sabbath-day_ was what constituted _a week_; in other words, since the essential feature of a week, as a Jewish division of time, was the recurrence of the Jewish day of rest; — τὸ σάββατον or τὰ σάββατα, the Hebrew name for _the day of rest_, became transferred to _the week_.
The Last Twelve Verses of the Gospel According to S. Mark John William Burgon 1850
-
At the double lines at ten and three, there might be a rest of two minutes; an officer appointed for the purpose, ringing a bell at each of the parts marked on the plan, and making the signal for the _rest_, whatever signal might be determined upon.
The Teacher Or, Moral Influences Employed in the Instruction and Government of the Young Jacob Abbott 1841
-
The only blessing I hope from time is _forgetfulness_ -- my only prayer to heaven is -- _rest, rest, rest_.
-
IV. iii.27 (` is rest to do more exploits with his mace than a morris pike] [W: a Maurice-pike] This conjecture is very ingenious, yet the commentator talks unnecessarily of the _rest of a musket. _ by which he makes the hero of the speech set up the _rest_ of a _musket, _ to do exploits with a _pike.
Notes to Shakespeare — Volume 01: Comedies Samuel Johnson 1746
-
I. i.138 (318,5) The sway, revenue, execution of the rest] [W: of th 'hest] I do not see any great difficulty in the words, _execution of the rest_, which are in both the old copies.
Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies Samuel Johnson 1746
-
No one had ever sung it that way -- the rest is history.
Margie Goldsmith: Visiting the Memphis Kings: Elvis and Dr. Martin Luther King Margie Goldsmith 2010
-
No one had ever sung it that way -- the rest is history.
Margie Goldsmith: Visiting the Memphis Kings: Elvis and Dr. Martin Luther King Margie Goldsmith 2010
-
So when I became of voting age, I went ahead and registered as a Democrat and the rest is history.
Kathleen Wells, J.D.: Three Purple - Heart Recipient Jim Bryan Expects Victory As Florida Write - In Candidate J.D. Kathleen Wells 2010
-
So when I became of voting age, I went ahead and registered as a Democrat and the rest is history.
Kathleen Wells, J.D.: Three Purple - Heart Recipient Jim Bryan Expects Victory As Florida Write - In Candidate J.D. Kathleen Wells 2010
-
In a series of experiments on roundworms, mice and human brain tissue, they found that a protein called REST, which controls the expression of many genes related to neural firing, also controls life span.
Longevity Linked to Proteins That Calm Overexcited Neurons | Quanta Magazine Veronique Greenwood 2019
anydelirium commented on the word rest
'"I want rest- rest!" said Mrs. Kent, laughing wildly. "Can you find that for me? Don't you know I'm a ghost, Emily? I died years ago... I walk in the dark."' - the book Emily's Quest, by L.M. Montgomery
February 19, 2008
gangerh commented on the word rest
This signals a break in filming - either to sort out a technical problem or to change the scene - and you should stay in the area until you are needed again.
July 6, 2008
jmjarmstrong commented on the word rest
JM had his nap interrupted by a phone call and never did get the rest.
June 19, 2011
vendingmachine commented on the word rest
A rest is an interval of silence in a piece of music, marked by a symbol indicating the length of the pause.
June 28, 2015