roost
noun
a perch upon which birds or fowls rest at night.
roost
American
[roost]
/ rust /
noun
-
roosts
plural
-
a perch upon which birds or fowls rest at night.
-
a large cage, house, or place for fowls or birds to roost in.
-
a place for sitting, resting, or lodging.
verb (used without object)
-
roosts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
roosted,
past participle, past
-
roosting
present participle
-
to sit or rest on a roost, perch, etc.
-
to settle or stay, especially for the night.
idioms
-
rule the roost, to be in charge or control; dominate.
It was only too apparent that his grandfather ruled the roost.
-
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.
roost
1
British
/ ruːst /
noun
-
a place, perch, branch, etc, where birds, esp domestic fowl, rest or sleep
-
a temporary place to rest or stay
-
See rule
verb
-
(intr) to rest or sleep on a roost
-
(intr) to settle down or stay
-
to have unfavourable repercussions
Roost
2
British
/ ruːst /
noun
roost
More Idioms
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
roostsimple
-
roostssimple
-
have roostedperfect
-
has roostedperfect
-
am roostingprogressive
-
are roostingprogressive
-
is roostingprogressive
-
have been roostingperfect progressive
-
has been roostingperfect progressive
Past
-
roostedsimple
-
had roostedperfect
-
was roostingprogressive
-
were roostingprogressive
-
had been roostingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of roost
before 1100; Middle English roost (noun), Old English hrōst; cognate with Middle Dutch roest
Explanation
A roost is a place where birds or bats can sleep or rest safely. Backyard chickens need a comfortable, secure roost to stay warm and rested. You can use roost to mean the perch that birds stand on while resting, the structure that contains the perch, or even a random tree branch, in the case of a wild bird. As a verb, it means to sit or to rest: "The chickens began to roost for the evening." When someone says, "Chickens come home to roost," they mean that bad actions eventually have bad consequences. And if you "rule the roost," you're in charge.
Vocabulary lists containing roost
Words of a Feather: Unflappable Avian Vocabulary
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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Tears of a Tiger
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He said: "Bat boxes and other known roost sites were swabbed to collect eDNA samples, revealing the presence of the rare migrant bat."
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
And he has been patrolling the skies and the lawns since 2008, ruling the roost at the centuries old site.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
As The Wall Street Journal’s Theo Francis details elsewhere, chip maker Nvidia rules the roost thanks to high scores on five of the six vectors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 8, 2026
And your little white lies will come home to roost.
From MarketWatch ● May 26, 2026
With much labor the companions managed to raise the heavy Crochan and carry it from the chicken roost.
From "The Black Cauldron" by Lloyd Alexander
Just a few blocks from both the Ritz and Roost, The Marble Room is a steakhouse and raw bar housed in a stunning old bank.
From Salon ● Mar. 30, 2025
At Red Hen Roost, a 73-acre corn farm in New York that also sells through Handsome Brook, some hens are waiting at the barn doors first thing in the morning, owner Luke Nolt says.
From National Geographic ● Feb. 16, 2024
The $89.95 Roost is my favorite laptop stand.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 28, 2023
The play included a song that caught the attention of local talent spotters and he was asked to do a set at a jazz club called the Royal Roost.
From BBC ● Apr. 25, 2023
The present Knight of Griffin’s Roost, his son Ronnet, was said to be off at war in the riverlands.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
His team has closely monitored this elusive forest-dwelling species using "smart" roosts equipped with antennas to detect implanted microchips in the bats.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 2, 2025
Researchers have tested out blowing probitoic-laden dust into bat roosts when they vacate for the night, allowing it to coat them when they return.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2024
"Protecting these maternity roosts, or promoting them where they do not yet exist, is an important part of conservation."
From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2024
At dusk, hundreds of wild parrots, some in large flocks, some singly or in pairs, approach from all directions, squawking loudly and circling overhead before settling on a variety of roosts.
From National Geographic ● Dec. 13, 2023
“At any rate, she’s the only one I have trouble with. She’s wily, that one. Always does her own thing, never roosts with the others. She gave me these.”
From "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan
To test the method, the team examined hundreds of tiny fossil bones left behind by owls that once roosted inside the cave.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 24, 2026
Colorful birds roosted on tangled branches and trunks, and small paths under the green and occasionally yellow leaves beckoned us to explore.
From New York Times ● May 8, 2024
The team found the chimps were hardly alone in feeding on the guano, which came from a colony of Noack’s roundleaf bat that roosted in the tree.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 22, 2024
Many of these were condors that had roosted in Arizona’s Vermilion Cliffs, the same place where captive-bred birds were first released in 1996.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 29, 2023
His fury so upset and bewildered the owl that it flew upward and roosted on a dead limb of the tree, staring down in disbelief.
From "Abel's Island" by William Steig
Chicken thighs are roosting in recipes from high-end wellness resorts for top spenders and in the grocery carts of average consumers who are increasingly steering toward poultry because of record-high beef prices in recent months.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 19, 2026
Expect to see and hear more chickens roosting in the next four years.
From Salon ● Mar. 31, 2025
In mid Wales, Aberystwyth Royal Pier in Ceredigion attracts both amusement arcade enthusiasts and roosting starlings who draw crowds when they flock to create magnificent murmurations.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2024
Madison’s annual Fourth of July fireworks extravaganza raised multiple alarms, as the detonations traumatized roosting birds and sent them fleeing, many into traffic, and damaged wetland duck habitats with toxic detritus.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 6, 2024
“Respect the ladies,” she told Ess, as the little girl stared up at a hen roosting in the low branch of a tree.
From "Orphan Island" by Laurel Snyder
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.
