From French veste, from Latin vestis, from Proto-Indo-European *wéstis, from *wes- (English wear).

• IPA: /vɛst/

vest (plural vests)

1. (North America) A sleeveless garment that buttons down the front, worn over a shirt, and often as part of a suit; a waistcoat.

   Synonyms: waistcoat

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter X, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC ↗:

     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.

2. (British) A sleeveless garment, often with a low-cut neck, usually worn under a shirt or blouse.

   Synonyms: singlet, tank top, undershirt

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.
5. A vestment.
   • 1700, John Dryden, Palamon and Arcite:

     In state attended by her maiden train, / Who bore the vests that holy rites require.

6. Clothing generally; array; garb.
   • 1800, William Wordsworth, [unnamed poem] (classified under Inscriptions)

     Not seldom, clad in radiant vest / Deceitfully goes forth the morn.

7. (now, rare) A loose robe or outer garment worn historically by men in Arab or Middle Eastern countries.

• French: gilet
• German: Weste, Gilet (regional)
• Italian: panciotto, gilè, corpetto
• Portuguese: colete
• Russian: жиле́т
• Spanish: chaleco, chalequillo (Southern Spain, especially Seville - in this city, "chaleco" means "sweater" or "jumper")

• French: tricot de corps
• German: Unterhemd
• Italian: canottiera
• Portuguese: regata
• Russian: ма́йка
• Spanish: camiseta de tirantes

• Italian: canottiera
• Russian: ма́йка

• Italian: giubbetto, giubbotto, giacchetta, giubbino
• Russian: безрука́вка

• German: verleihen, übergeben
• Italian: investitura

vest (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.
   • 1673, John Milton, Methought I Saw my Late Espoused Saint:

     Came vested all in white, pure as her mind.

   • 1697, John Dryden, Aeneid:

     With ether vested, and a purple sky.

2. To clothe with authority, power, etc.; to put in possession; to invest; to furnish; to endow; followed by with and the thing conferred.

   to vest a court with power to try cases of life and death

   • c. 1718, Matthew Prior, To Mr. Howard - An Ode:

     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.

3. To place or give into the possession or discretion of some person or authority; to commit to another; with in before the possessor.

   The power of life and death is vested in the king, or in the courts.

   • 1689 December (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], Two Treatises of Government: […], London: […] Awnsham Churchill, […], →OCLC ↗:
     , Book I

     Empire and dominion […] was vested in him.

4. (legal) To clothe with possession; also, to give a person an immediate fixed right of present or future enjoyment of.

   to vest a person with an estate

   an estate is vested in possession

   • 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC ↗:

     For the right of the crown vests […] upon his heir.

5. (legal, intransitive) (of an inheritance or a trust fund) To devolve upon the person currently entitled when a prior interest has ended.

   Upon the death of the Sovereign the Crown automatically vests in the next heir without the need of coronation or other formality.

6. (financial, intransitive) To become vested, to become permanent.

   My pension vests at the end of the month and then I can take it with me when I quit.

   • 2005, Kaye A. Thomas, Consider Your Options, page 104:

     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.

   • 2007, Ransey Guy Cole, Jr. (United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit), Roger Miller Music, Inc. v. Sony ATV Publishing, LLC

     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.

7. (obsolete) To invest; to put.

   to vest money in goods, land, or houses

1. Surname.