Rest | Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Rĕst, n.

noun

n. [A-S. rest, rīst, Dan. & Sw. rast, rest, repose, Icel. rōst, O. Fries. resta, O. Sax., Goth., & O. H. Ger. rasta, a league, pause, quiet, N. H. Ger. rast, L. Ger. & D. rust, Pr. & It. resta, pause, delay, repose. See infra.

Sense 1. A state of quiet or repose; a cessation from motion or labor; tranquillity; as, rest from mental exertion; rest of body or mind.

Sleep give thee all his rest. Shak.

Sense 2. Hence, freedom from every thing which wearies or disturbs; peace; security.

The land had rest fourscore years. Judg. iii. 30.

Sense 3. That on which any thing rests or leans for support.

He made narrowed rests round about, that the beams should not be fastened in the walls of the house. 1 Kings vi. 6.

Sense 4. (Anc. Armor.) A projection from the right side of a coat of mail, serving to support the butt of a lance. “Their visors closed, their lances in the rest.” Dryden.

Sense 5. A place where one may rest; a permanent habitation. “In dust our final rest, and native home.” Milton.

Ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the Lord your God giveth you. Deut. xii. 9.

Sense 6. Sleep; hence, poetically, death.

Sense 7. (Poetry.) A short pause of the voice in reading; a cesura.

Sense 8. (Mus.) (a.) A pause; an interval during which voice or sound is intermitted. (b.) The mark of such intermission.

Synonyms— Cessation; pause; intermission; stop; stay; repose; slumber; quiet; ease; quietness; stillness; tranquillity; peacefulness; peace. See CESSATION. — REST, REPOSE. Rest is a ceasing from labor or exertion; repose is a mode of resting which gives relief and refreshment after toil and labor. We may rest in a standing posture; we usually repose in a reclining one. “The dove which Noah first sent out could not find rest for the sole of its foot; soldiers who are hotly pursued by an enemy have no time or opportunity to take repose; the night is the time for rest; the pillow is the place for repose. Rest may be properly applied to things and persons.” Crabb.

The peaceful peasant to the wars is pressed, The fields lie fallow in inglorious rest. Dryden.

Repose may be employed figuratively in the same sense.

Nor can the tortured wave here find repose, But raging still amid the shaggy rocks, Now flashes o’er the scattered fragments. Thomson.

A treble-clef staff illustrates several musical rest symbols in measures. — Rests.

Rĕst, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. [imp. & p. p. RESTED; p. pr. & vb. n. RESTING.] [A-S. restan, O. H. Ger. restjan, rastjan, N. H. Ger. rasten, Sw. rasta, D. rusten. See REST, n.] 1. To cease from action or motion of any kind; to stop. God rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. Gen. ii. 2. 2. To be free from whatever wearies or disturbs; to be quiet or still. There rest, if any rest can harbor there. Milton.

To lie; to repose; to recline; to lean; as, to rest on a couch.
To stand on; to be supported by; as, a column rests on its pedestal.
To sleep; to slumber.

Fancy then retires Into her private cell, when Nature rests. Milton. 6. To sleep the final sleep; to die, or be dead. Glad I lay me down, As in my mother's lap; there I should rest, And sleep secure. Milton. 7. To lean; to trust; to rely; as, to rest on a man's promise. On him I rested, And not without considering fixed my fate. Dryden. 8. To be satisfied; to acquiesce. “To rest in Heaven's determination.” Addison. To rest with, to be in the power of; to depend upon; as, it rests with him to decide.

Rĕst, v. t.

verbtransitive

Sense 1. To lay or place at rest; to quiet. Your piety has paid All needful rites to rest my wandering shade. Dryden. 2. To place, as on a support. Her weary head upon your bosom rest. Waller.

Rĕst, n.

noun

n. [Fr. reste, It. resto, Sp. resto, resta, remainder, from Fr. rester, Sp. restar, It. restare, to remain, Lat. restare, to stay back, to remain, from re, again, back, and stare, to stand, stay.] 1. That which is left, or which remains after the separation of a part, either in fact or in contemplation; remainder. Religion gives part of its reward in hand, ... the present comfort of having done our duty, and, for the rest, it offers us the best security that Heaven can give. Tillotson. 2. Those not included in a proposition or description; the remainder; others. “Plato and the rest of the philosophers.” Stillingfleet. Armed like the rest, the Trojan prince appears. Dryden. Syn.—Remainder; overplus; remnant; residue; others.

Rĕst, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. [Fr. rester, Pr., Sp., & Pg. restar, It. & Lat. restare. See REST, n.] To be left; to remain. The affairs of men rest still uncertain. Shak.