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View synonyms for roost

roost

[ roost ]

noun

  1. a perch upon which birds or fowls rest at night.
  2. a large cage, house, or place for fowls or birds to roost in.
  3. a place for sitting, resting, or lodging.


verb (used without object)

  1. to sit or rest on a roost, perch, etc.
  2. to settle or stay, especially for the night.

roost

1

/ ruːst /

noun

  1. a place, perch, branch, etc, where birds, esp domestic fowl, rest or sleep
  2. a temporary place to rest or stay
  3. rule the roost
    See rule
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


verb

  1. intr to rest or sleep on a roost
  2. intr to settle down or stay
  3. come home to roost
    to have unfavourable repercussions
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Roost

2

/ ruːst /

noun

  1. the Roost
    a powerful current caused by conflicting tides around the Shetland and Orkney Islands
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Other Words From

  • un·roosted adjective
  • un·roosting adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of roost1

before 1100; Middle English roost (noun), Old English hrōst; cognate with Middle Dutch roest
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Word History and Origins

Origin of roost1

Old English hrōst ; related to Old Saxon hrost loft, German Rost grid

Origin of roost2

C16: from Old Norse röst
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Idioms and Phrases

Idioms
  1. come home to roost, (of an action) to revert or react unfavorably to the doer; boomerang:

    an evil deed that came home to roost and ruined his life.

  2. rule the roost, to be in charge or control; dominate:

    It was only too apparent that his grandfather ruled the roost.

More idioms and phrases containing roost

see chickens come home to roost ; rule the roost .
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Example Sentences

The study showed that the social bonds formed in roosts extended into the hunt.

Bat buds rarely left the roost together, suggesting that they don’t go on tightly coordinated hunts, Carter says.

Weeda Mehran, University of ExeterDespite what they insisted as they swept through Afghanistan, the Taliban appear to have remained largely the same since the days they ruled the roost in the 1990s.

Nielsen rose to its position by virtue of the uniqueness of its panel and retained its roost through its continued usage over time.

From Digiday

The first name in DAW software still rules the biggest industry roosts and now features remote cloud collaboration.

“All the chickens are coming home to roost,” said opposition leader Antonio Di Pietro.

Since John F. Kennedy, the GOP has ruled the foreign policy roost at election time and beyond.

And past traumas and tribulations come home to roost for one reason only: so you can finally release them.

As House Majority Leader, DeLay ruled his roost with an iron fist that makes Nancy Pelosi look like Mary Poppins.

But now the chickens are coming back home to America to roost.

And from my roost I could note the passing of anything bigger than a buffalo yearling, within a radius of at least six miles.

All the little children have been gathered up by the nursery-maids, and are taken down to roost below.

He had found the lost chick, and clucked low notes of supreme content as he brought him back to the roost.

Nothing would please her more than to see Austria broken up into a number of little States and Hungary ruling the roost.

But from where he sat on his favorite roost in the tall pine-tree he could see that provoking egg, a little spot of shining white.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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Roosevelt, Theodorerooster