gest

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

Borrowed from Middle French geste. Doublet of jest.

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 […].

A variant of gist (“resting-place”).

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?

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

• Gets, gets, steg, tegs

Borrowed from Latin gestus. First attested in the 14th century.^[1]

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈʒest]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈd͡ʒest]

gest m (plural gests or gestos)

1. gesture

• gesticular

• “gest”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “gest” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “gest” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

gest

1. indefinite accusative singular of gestur

gest

1. singular present indicative of getast
2. second-person imperative of getast

• gist

From Old Dutch *gest, *gist, from Proto-West Germanic *jestu.

gest m or f

1. yeast

• gist

• Dutch: gist
  • Afrikaans: gis
• Limburgish: ges

• Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “gest (II)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page II

From a conflation of Old Norse gestr and Old English ġiest; both from Proto-Germanic *gastiz, from Proto-Germanic *gʰóstis. Doublet of host.

• geste, gist, geast, gyst

• IPA^(key): /ɡɛst/, /ɡɛːst/, /ɡist/
• Rhymes: -ɛst

gest (plural gestes)

2. A guest, visitor; somebody staying at another's residence.
3. A customer of a hostel or inn; one that pays for accommodation.
4. An unknown person; a foreigner or outsider.
5. A (often threatening) male individual; a ominous person.
6. (figurative, rare) A male lover of a woman; a man in an unofficial intimate relationship with a woman.

• gesten
• gestenen
• gestyng

• English: guest
• Scots: guest

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

gest

1. alternative form of geste (“tale”)
   • late 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Man of Law's Tale, The Canterbury Tales, line 1126-1127:

     In olde Romayn gestes may men finde
     Maurices lyf; I bere it noght in minde.

     In the old Roman histories may men find
     Maurice's life; I bear it not in mind.

   • late 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Squire's Tale, The Canterbury Tales, line 209-211:

     [...] Or elles it was the Grekes hors Synon,
     That broghte Troye to destruccion,
     As men may in thise olde gestes rede, [...]

     [...] Or else it was Sinon the Greek's horse,
     That brought Troy to destruction,
     As men in these old romances read, [...]

gest

1. alternative form of geste (“tribe”)

gest

1. alternative form of gesten (“to host a guest”)

gest

1. alternative form of gesten (“to read poetry”)

gest

1. alternative form of yest (“beer foam”)

From Latin gestus, via French geste.

gest m (definite singular gesten, indefinite plural gester, definite plural gestene)

1. a gesture

• “gest” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Latin gestus, via French geste.

• IPA^(key): /ɡɛst/

gest m (definite singular gesten, indefinite plural gestar, definite plural gestane)

1. a gesture

• “gest” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Possibly borrowed from Old Saxon gēst or Old High German geist.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡeːst/, [ˈɡɛːst]

gēst m

1. alternative form of gāst

• Bremmer, Rolf H. (2009) An Introduction to Old Frisian: History, Grammar, Reader, Glossary, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 28

gest

1. accusative/dative singular of gestr

• geist

From Proto-West Germanic *gaist.

gēst m

1. A soul, spirit, breath

• Middle Low German: gêst, geist
  • Low German: Geist
    • German Low German: Geest, Geist
  • Plautdietsch: Jeist

Learned borrowing from Latin gestus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɛst/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛst
• Syllabification: gest

gest m inan

1. gesture (motion of the limbs or body)
2. gesture (act or remark)

• gest in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• gest in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Borrowed from French geste.

gest n (plural gesturi)

1. gesture

From Latin gestus (“having been carried”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɧɛst/

• Audio:

  (file)

gest c

1. a gesture; a motion of the hands

   gäster med gester

   guests with gestures (title of a Swedish TV show)

2. a gesture; a symbolic action, a signal

• gest in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• gest in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• gest in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

• gets, segt, steg, tegs

• IPA^(key): /ɡɛst/

gest

1. soft mutation of cest