From Middle English roste (“chicken's roost; perch”), from Old English hrōst (“wooden framework of a roof; roost”), from Proto-West Germanic *hrōst, from Proto-Germanic *hrōstaz (“wooden framework; grill”); see *raustijan.
Cognate with Dutch roest (“roost”), German Low German Rust (“roost”), German Rost (“grate; gridiron; grill”).
Meanings
The place where a bird sleeps (usually its nest or a branch).
He clapp'd his wings upon his roost. 1700, [John] Dryden, “The Cock and the Fox: Or, The Tale of the Nun’s Priest, from Chaucer”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
(collective) A group of birds roosting together.
A roost of chickens clucked excitedly in the undergrowth to the south of the Mata's enclosure, as a nocturnal snake hunted eggs 2018, Chuma Nwokolo, The Extinction of Menai, Ohio University Press:
a roost of birds is merely a fortuitous aggregation of individuals that have strategically placed their roost site to minimize distance to their supplemental and main food sources 2018, Clark E. Adams, Urban Wildlife Management, CRC Press:
A bedroom.
(Scotland) The open cross-joists or inner roof of a cottage or living space.
(qualifier:Australian rules football) A kick which causes the ball to travel a long distance.
Synonym of perch (“a position that is secure and advantageous”).
mk се́дело (place for sleeping birds) · fi nukkumapaikka (place for sleeping birds) · lt lakta (place for sleeping birds) · pl grzęda (place for sleeping birds) · cs hřad (place for sleeping birds) · tr yuva (place for sleeping birds) · kix vēutīng (place for sleeping birds) · wa djocoe (place for sleeping birds) · it pollaio (place for sleeping birds) · sh кокошињац (place for sleeping birds) · pt poleiro (place for sleeping birds) · cs kurník (place for sleeping birds) · lv lakta (place for sleeping birds) · es gallinero (place for sleeping birds) · de Nest (place for sleeping birds) · sh kokošinjac (place for sleeping birds) · bcl tugdunan (place for sleeping birds) · mi tūhunga (place for sleeping birds) · gd spiris (place for sleeping birds) · et tana (place for sleeping birds) · es pajarera (place for sleeping birds) · ca jóc (place for sleeping birds) · wa djoke (place for sleeping birds) · ru насе́ст (place for sleeping birds) · ja 塒 (place for sleeping birds) · ga fara (place for sleeping birds) · gl poleiro (place for sleeping birds) · ba төнәү (place for sleeping birds) · ota تونك (place for sleeping birds) · grc πέτευρον (place for sleeping birds) · uk сі́дало (place for sleeping birds)
From Middle English roste (“chicken's roost; perch”), from Old English hrōst (“wooden framework of a roof; roost”), from Proto-West Germanic *hrōst, from Proto-Germanic *hrōstaz (“wooden framework; grill”); see *raustijan.
Cognate with Dutch roest (“roost”), German Low German Rust (“roost”), German Rost (“grate; gridiron; grill”).
Meanings
(intransitive, of flying vertebrates) To settle on a perch in order to sleep or rest.
(figuratively) To spend the night.
The UPS package centre for central London, a brief walk from Kentish Town tube station, holds a below-ground bay in which 170 vans roost every night. 2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian:
(qualifier:Australian rules football, transitive) To kick (a ball) a long distance.
de auf einer Stange schlafen (settle on a perch in order to sleep or rest) · de übernachten (settle on a perch in order to sleep or rest) · ca ajocar-se (settle on a perch in order to sleep or rest) · fi nukkua (settle on a perch in order to sleep or rest) · it appollaiarsi (settle on a perch in order to sleep or rest) · ota تونهمك (settle on a perch in order to sleep or rest) · cs hřadovat (settle on a perch in order to sleep or rest) · ba ҡуныу (settle on a perch in order to sleep or rest) · ota تونكلمك (settle on a perch in order to sleep or rest) · tr tüneklemek (settle on a perch in order to sleep or rest) · de auf einem Ast schlafen (settle on a perch in order to sleep or rest) · ja 就塒する (settle on a perch in order to sleep or rest) · tr tünemek (settle on a perch in order to sleep or rest) · ba төнәү (settle on a perch in order to sleep or rest) · gl apoleirar (settle on a perch in order to sleep or rest)
Sometimes the whole tract swung to one side, like the tail of a live serpent; sometimes, for a glimpse, it would all disappear and then boil up again. What it was I had no guess, which for the time increased my fear of it; but I now know it must have been the roost or tide race, which had carried me away so fast and tumbled me about so cruelly, and at last, as if tired of that play, had flung out me and the spare yard upon its landward margin. 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC: