gest

See also: gëṣṭ and Gest

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /d͡ʒɛst/
• Homophone: jest
• Rhymes: -ɛst

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle French geste. Doublet of jest.

Noun

gest (countable and uncountable, plural gests)

1. (archaic) A story or adventure; a verse or prose romance.
   • 1577, Raphaell Holinshed, The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, →OCLC:

     The tales of Robin Hood, or the gests written by Ariost the Italian in his booke intituled Orlando furioso.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Who faire them quites, as him beseemed best,
     And goodly gan discourse of many a noble gest.

2. (archaic) An action represented in sports, plays, or on the stage; show; ceremony.
   • a. 1639, Joseph Mede, a sermon

     And surely no Ceremonies of dedication , no not of Solomons Temple it self , are comparable to those sacred gests , whereby this place was sanctified

3. (archaic) Bearing; deportment.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 24:

     through his heroic grace and honorable gest

4. (obsolete) A gesture or action.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     They did obeysaunce, as beseemed right, / And then againe returned to their restes: / The Porter eke to her did lout with humble gestes.

   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 36, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     more Kings and Princes have written his gestes and actions, than any other historians, of what quality soever, have registred the gests, or collected the actions of any other King or Prince that ever was […].

Derived terms

• gested
• gestic

Translations

gesture

French: geste (fr) m Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: please add this translation if you can Roman: gesta (sh) f

verse romance

French: geste (fr) f

Etymology 2

A variant of gist (“resting-place”).

Noun

gest (plural gests)

1. (obsolete) Alternative form of gist (“a stop for lodging or rest in a journey, or the place where this happens; a rest”).
   • c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

     […] Yet of your Royall presence, Ile aduenture / The borrow of a Weeke. When at Bohemia / You take my Lord, Ile giue him my Commission, / To let him there a Moneth, behind the Gest / Prefix'd for's parting: yet (good-deed) Leontes, / I loue thee not a Iarre o'th' Clock, behind / What Lady she her Lord. You'le stay?

Derived terms

• gests (“roll reciting the several stages of a royal progress”)

Anagrams

• Gets, gets, steg, tegs