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
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
They’re even developing a routine: spending the night on the branches of a roost tree before following each other in flight at dawn, according to a Friends of Big Bear Valley Facebook post.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026
“The chickens are coming home to roost for a lot of people,” said Sean Burton, chief executive of the multifamily firm Cityview.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026
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 I think that’s going to accelerate in the back half of the year, when these high energy costs and fertilizer costs come to roost for our major agricultural producers,” he added.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 18, 2026
In mere minutes the light would be too low for her to find a roost.
From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
“Jackie and Shadow were not in the Roost Tree this morning,” wrote Sandy Steers, executive director of Friends of Big Bear Valley, Saturday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 6, 2025
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
Win or lose, he would see Griffin’s Roost again before he died, and be buried in the tomb beside his father’s.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
In West Penwith, Mark said wildlife appeared to react to the changing light, with birds returning to their roosts as the eclipse took place.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
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
We found the lake again just as the sun was setting and bats were screeching out of their hidden roosts.
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
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
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
Bats that were fleeing this human-caused disaster roosted above pigsties in Malaysia.
From Salon ● Jan. 19, 2023
On the blackened stump, they found traces of DNA left behind by bats that had apparently roosted in the tree.
From Science Magazine ● Jan. 28, 2021
The paper birds roosted on branches and stones and the remains of chimneys and walls and old buildings.
From "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" by Kelly Barnhill
With the construction of homes, stadiums and other buildings throughout the county, bats have adapted to roosting in spaces such as the eaves of homes or in crawl spaces, Curti said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
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
The falconer says the hawk is trained not to attack pigeons or gulls but will instead scare them into roosting and nesting elsewhere.
From BBC ● Dec. 15, 2025
Expect to see and hear more chickens roosting in the next four years.
From Salon ● Mar. 31, 2025
I wasn’t sure if it was because of the tortured bird roosting atop my aunt’s bonnet, or my uncommon costume—or if it was because they’d never met lady detectives before.
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
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.
