vest
verbEtymology Derived from French veste (“a vest, jacket”), from Latin vestis (“a garment, gown, robe, vestment, clothing, vesture”), from Proto-Indo-European *wéstis, from *wes- (“to be dressed”) (English wear). Cognate with Sanskrit वस्त्र (vastra) and Spanish vestir.
7 senses
- 1To clothe with, or as with, a vestment, or garment; to…
- 2To clothe with authority, power, etc.; to put in…
- 3To place or give into the possession or discretion of…
- 4To clothe with possession; also, to give a person an…
- 5(of an inheritance or a trust fund) To devolve upon the…
- 6To become vested, to become permanent.
- 7To invest; to put.
Passive To clothe with, or as with, a vestment, or garment; to dress; to robe; to cover, surround, or encompass closely.
- 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:
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
- 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:
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.
- , Book I Empire and dominion […] was vested in him.
Law 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
1 more example
- 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, →OCLC:
Law (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.
- My pension vests at the end of the month and then I can take it with me when I quit.
- 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:
2 more examples
- 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.
- They were, they said tipsily, essentially being paid to do nothing while earning out — or “vesting” — their stock grants. “Rest and vest,” the techies said, in between sips of beer.2025 August 4, Mike Isaac, “A.I. Has Ushered in Silicon Valley’s ‘Hard Tech’ Era”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 04 Aug 2025:
Obsolete To invest; to put.
- to vest money in goods, land, or houses