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

[Middle English reste, short for areste, a stopping, holding, from Old French, from arester, to stop; see arrest.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French reste, from rester, to remain, from Latin restāre, to stay behind : re-, re- + stāre, to stand; see stā- in Indo-European roots.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English reste, from Old French reste from Old French rester ("to remain") from Latin restare ("to stay back, stay behind") from re- +‎ stare (to stand). Replaced native Middle English lave ("rest, remainder") (from Old English lāf ("remnant, remainder")).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English rest, from Old English rest, ræst ("rest, quiet, freedom from toil, repose, sleep, resting-place, a bed, couch, grave"), from Proto-Germanic *rastō, *rastijō (“rest”), from Proto-Indo-European *ros-, *res-, *erH- (“rest”). Cognate with West Frisian rêst ("rest"), Dutch rust ("rest"), German Rast ("rest"), Old Irish árus ("dwelling"), German Ruhe ("calm"), Albanian resht ("to stop, pause"), Welsh araf ("quiet, calm, gentle"), Lithuanian rovà ("calm"), Ancient Greek ἐρωή (erōē, "rest, respite"), Avestan  (airime, "calm, peaceful"), Sanskrit रमते (rámate, "he stays still, calms down"), Gothic 𐍂𐌹𐌼𐌹𐍃 (rimis, "tranquility"). Related to roo.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English resten, from Old English restan ("to rest, cease from toil, be at rest, sleep, rest in death, lie dead, lie in the grave, remain unmoved or undisturbed, be still, rest from, remain, lie"), from Proto-Germanic *rastijanan (“to rest”), from Proto-Indo-European *ros-, *res-, *erH- (“rest”). Cognate with Dutch rusten ("to rest"), Middle Low German resten ("to rest"), German rasten ("to rest"), Danish raste ("to rest"), Swedish rasta ("to rest").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word rest.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • '"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

  • 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

  • JM had his nap interrupted by a phone call and never did get the rest.

    June 19, 2011

  • 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