Gest

//d͡ʒɛst// name, noun

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.
Noun
  1. 1
    A story or adventure; a verse or prose romance. archaic, countable, uncountable

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

  2. 2
    Alternative form of gist (“a stop for lodging or rest in a journey, or the place where this happens; a rest”). alt-of, alternative, obsolete

    "[…]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?"

  3. 3
    An action represented in sports, plays, or on the stage; show; ceremony. archaic, countable, uncountable

    "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"

  4. 4
    Bearing; deportment. archaic, countable, uncountable

    "through his heroic grace and honorable gest"

  5. 5
    A gesture or action. countable, obsolete, uncountable

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

Etymology

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle French geste. Doublet of jest.

Etymology 2

A variant of gist (“resting-place”).

Etymology 3

From the German surname, related to geest (“sandy area”).

Next best steps

Mini challenge

Unscramble this word: gest