chest
pronunciation
How to pronounce chest in British English:
UK [tʃest]
How to pronounce chest in American English:
US [tʃest]
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- Noun:
- the part of the human body between the neck and the diaphragm or the corresponding part in other vertebrates
- box with a lid; used for storage; usually large and sturdy
- furniture with drawers for keeping clothes
Word Origin
- chest
- chest: [OE] Chest comes ultimately from Greek kístē ‘box, basket’. In Latin this became cista (source of English cistern [13]). In prehistoric times the word was borrowed into Germanic as *kistā, which was the source of Old English cest. This still meant ‘box’, a sense which continued in isolation until the 16th century, when it was first applied to the ‘thorax’ – the basis of the metaphor presumably being that the ribs enclose the heart and lungs like a box. It has since replaced breast as the main term for the concept.=> cistern
- chest (n.)
- Old English cest "box, coffer, casket," from Proto-Germanic *kista (cognates: Old Norse and Old High German kista, Old Frisian, Middle Dutch, German kiste, Dutch kist), an early borrowing from Latin cista "chest, box," from Greek kiste "a box, basket," from PIE *kista "woven container." Meaning extended to "thorax" 1520s, replacing breast (n.), on the metaphor of the ribs as a box for the organs. Chest of drawers is from 1590s.
Example
- 1. Breathe deeply from your belly , not your chest .
- 2. Treasure in hand , and against his chest .
- 3. He beat his thigh and chest and cried out .
- 4. Hagrid 's chest swelled at these last words .
- 5. Our snow seeds were in his old ice chest .