gest
UK/d͡ʒɛst/
gest noun: a story or adventure; a verse or prose romance. Also the alternative form of gist.
Noun
gest (countable and uncountable, plural gests)
- A story or adventure; a verse or prose romance.
- The tales of Robin Hood, or the gests written by Ariost the Italian in his booke intituled Orlando furioso.1577, Raphaell Holinshed, The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, →OCLC
- Who faire them quites, as him beseemed best,
And goodly gan discourse of many a noble gest.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
- 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
- a. 1639, Joseph Mede, a sermon
- Bearing; deportment.
- through his heroic grace and honorable gest1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 24
- A gesture or action.
- They did obeysaunce, as beseemed right, / And then againe returned to their restes: / The Porter eke to her did lout with humble gestes.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →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[…].1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 36, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
Proper noun capitalized: Gest
Gest (plural Gests)
- A surname.
Also used as
gest is also the alternative form of gist.
Forms of gest
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | gests |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Gests |
Origin of gest
Borrowed from Middle French geste. Doublet of jest.
A variant of gist (“resting-place”).
From the German surname, related to geest (“sandy area”).
Words formed from gest
Words that rhyme with gest
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- attest
- guest
- quest
- bequest
- distressed
- pest
- prest
- request
- revest
- west
- wrest
- zest
- contest
- depressed
- dressed
- impressed
- jest
- suggest
- acid test
- best
- celeste
- divest
- ingest
- molest
- North West
- northwest
- possessed
- pressed
- professed
- southwest
- -cest
- addressed
- behest
- compressed
- congest
- detest
- fest
- infest
- lest
- obsessed
- pretest
- processed
- repressed
- rest.
- stressed
- tressed
- unrest
- unstressed
Questions about gest
- What does gest mean?
- Gest means a story or adventure; a verse or prose romance.
- What part of speech is gest?
- Gest can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce gest?
- Gest is pronounced /d͡ʒɛst/ (UK).
- What is the plural of gest?
- The plural of gest is gests.
Words near gest in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: gest (page history and authors); Gest (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “gest.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gest. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.