Definition of "vest"

vest

/vɛst/

noun
plural vests
1. (Canada, US) A sleeveless garment that buttons down the front, worn over a shirt, and often as part of a suit; a waistcoat.
  Quotations
  The Jones man was looking at her hard. Now he reached into the hatch of his vest and fetched out a couple of cigars, everlasting big ones, with gilt bands on them.
  1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 10, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
2. (Britain) A sleeveless garment, often with a low-cut neck, usually worn under a shirt or blouse.
3. A sleeveless top, typically with identifying colours or logos, worn by an athlete or member of a sports team.
4. Any sleeveless outer garment, often for a purpose such as identification, safety, or storage.
  Quotations
  He gripped some of the shreds and pulled off his vest and the shirt beneath it, his clothing disintegrating around him. What in the hell point was there in wearing a twenty-five-pound bulletproof vest if you could still get gunned to death?
  2010, Thomas Mullen, The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers, Random House, page 162
5. A vestment.
  Quotations
  In state attended by her maiden train, / Who bore the vests that holy rites require.
  1700, John Dryden, Palamon and Arcite
6. Clothing generally; array; garb.
  Quotations
  Not seldom, clad in radiant vest / Deceitfully goes forth the morn.
  1800, William Wordsworth, [unnamed poem] (classified under Inscriptions)
7. (now rare) A loose robe or outer garment worn historically by men in Arab or Middle Eastern countries.
verb
third-person singular simple present vests, present participle vesting, simple past and past participle vested
1. (chiefly passive) To clothe with, or as with, a vestment, or garment; to dress; to robe; to cover, surround, or encompass closely.
  Quotations
  Came vested all in white, pure as her mind.
  1673, John Milton, Methought I Saw my Late Espoused Saint
  With ether vested, and a purple sky.
  1697, John Dryden, Aeneid
2. To clothe with authority, power, etc.; to put in possession; to invest; to furnish; to endow; followed by with and the thing conferred.
  Quotations
  Had thy poor breast receiv’d an equal pain; / Had I been vested with the monarch’s power; / Thou must have sigh’d, unlucky youth, in vain; / Nor from my bounty hadst thou found a cure.
  c. 1718, Matthew Prior, To Mr. Howard - An Ode
3. To place or give into the possession or discretion of some person or authority; to commit to another; with in before the possessor.
  Quotations
  Empire and dominion […] was vested in him.
  1689 December (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], Two Treatises of Government: […], London: […] Awnsham Churchill, […]
4. (law) To clothe with possession; also, to give a person an immediate fixed right of present or future enjoyment of.
  Quotations
  For the right of the crown vests […] upon his heir.
  1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press
5. (law, intransitive) (of an inheritance or a trust fund) To devolve upon the person currently entitled when a prior interest has ended.
6. (financial, intransitive) To become vested, to become permanent.
  Quotations
  If you doubt that you'll stick around at the company long enough for your options to vest, you should discount the value for that uncertainty as well.
  2005, Kaye A. Thomas, Consider Your Options, page 104
  Sony interpreted 17 U.S.C. § 304 as requiring that the author be alive at the start of the copyright renewal term for the author’s prior assignments to vest.
  2007, Ransey Guy Cole, Jr. (United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit), Roger Miller Music, Inc. v. Sony ATV Publishing, LLC
7. (obsolete) To invest; to put.

Definition of "vest"

vest

noun

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verb

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