Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A place where winged animals, especially birds or bats, rest or sleep.
  • noun A group of animals in a roost.
  • noun A place for temporary rest or sleep.
  • intransitive verb To rest or sleep on a perch or in a roost.
  • intransitive verb To rest or sleep.
  • idiom (come home to roost) To have repercussions or aftereffects, especially unfavorable ones.
  • idiom (rule the roost) To be in charge; dominate.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To occupy a roost; perch, as a bird.
  • To stick or stay upon a resting-place; cling or adhere to a rest, as a limpet on a rock.
  • To set or perch, as a bird on a roost: used reflexively.
  • noun A pole or perch upon which fowls rest at night; any place upon which a bird may perch to rest; also, a locality where birds, as pigeons, habitually spend the night.
  • noun Hence A temporary abiding- or resting-place.
  • noun The fowls which occupy such a roost, collectively.
  • noun The inner roof of a cottage, composed of spars reaching from one wall to the other; a garret. Jamieson. [Scotch.]
  • See roust.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb See roust, v. t.
  • noun obsolete Roast.
  • noun The pole or other support on which fowls rest at night; a perch.
  • noun A collection of fowls roosting together.
  • noun on a perch or roost; hence, retired to rest.
  • intransitive verb To sit, rest, or sleep, as fowls on a pole, limb of a tree, etc.; to perch.
  • intransitive verb Fig.; To lodge; to rest; to sleep.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun UK, Shetland and Orkney A tidal race.
  • noun The place where a bird sleeps (usually its nest or a branch).
  • verb of birds sleep.
  • verb to come back home

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb sit, as on a branch
  • noun a shelter with perches for fowl or other birds
  • verb settle down or stay, as if on a roost
  • noun a perch on which domestic fowl rest or sleep

Etymologies

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

[Middle English rooste, from Old English hrōst.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English hrōst.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old Norse rōst

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Examples

Comments

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  • Manx, "bark," equivalent to Old Irish rúsc, Welsh rhisg(l). (Not sure if this means bark as in a tree, or bark like a dog, but I'm guessing the former.)

    April 23, 2009