chest

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃɛst/
• (Scotland, dialectal, obsolete) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃɪst/^[1]

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (UK):

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• Rhymes: -ɛst

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”).

• chist (obsolete)

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 human body from the base of the neck to the top of the abdomen; the homologous area in some other animals.

   Hypernym: thorax (synonymous in humans and some other animals)

   Holonyms: torso, trunk < body

   Comeronyms: head, neck, abdomen, limbs

   She had a sudden pain in her chest.

   An anteroposterior radiograph found opacities throughout her chest.

8. The front (anterior) surface of this portion of the torso.

   Holonyms: thorax; torso, trunk

   Comeronyms: back, dorsum

   He has a tattoo on his chest, and another on his upper back.

   The wild gorilla was beating its chest.

10. (euphemistic) A female human's breasts.

    He avoided being seen gazing at her chest, although he dearly longed to stare.

11. A hit or blow made with one's chest.

    She scored with a chest into the goal.

• (the thorax): breast
• (box): trunk

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^[2]:

     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.
4. (transitive, Africa) To handle, deal with.
   • 2025 August 2, @ulxma, X‎^[3]:

     Children being loud and annoying in public is a small price to pay for living and participating in society. Everyone goes through this cycle and you too were once that child. We can’t just lock them indoors. Chest it, sorry.

• chest down

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”).

chest (plural chests)

1. Debate; quarrel; strife; enmity.

• techs, chets, Chets, Tesch, Stech

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

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

1. this

• chel

• chëst

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

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

1. this
2. (in the plural) these

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

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈkest/
  • IPA^(key): [ˈkɛs(t)], [ˈkes(t)]

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

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

1. this

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

1. this
2. this one

• chell chí, cuell chí

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

• cheste, cheeste, cheaste, chyaste, chast

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

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

• English: chest

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

chest

2. alternative form of geste (“tale”)

chest

2. alternative form of cheste (“chest”)

chest m (oblique and nominative feminine singular cheste)

1. Picard form of cist

• IPA^(key): /χɛst/

chest

1. aspirate mutation of cest