chest

Meanings

Noun

• A box, now usually a large strong box with a secure convex lid.
• A coffin.
• The place in which public money is kept; a treasury.
• A chest of drawers.
• The portion of the front of the human body from the base of the neck to the top of the abdomen; the thorax. Also the analogous area in other animals.
• A hit or blow made with one's chest.
• Debate; quarrel; strife; enmity.

Verb

• To hit with one's chest (front of one's body)
• To deposit in a chest.
• To place in a coffin.

Related

Similar words

• breast
• trunk

Origin

• From Middle English cheste, chiste, from Old English ċest, ċist, from Proto-West Germanic *kistu ("chest, box"), from Latin cista ("chest, box"), from Ancient Greek κίστη ("chest, box, basket, hamper"), from Proto-Indo-European *kisteh₂ ("woven container").
• Germanic cognates include Scots kist, West Frisian kiste, Dutch kist, German Kiste.
• From Middle English chest, cheste, cheeste, cheaste, from Old English ċēast, ċēas. Related to Old Frisian kāse ("strife, contention"), Old Saxon caest ("quarrel, dispute"), Old High German kōsa ("speech, story, account").