vest

Etymology

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.

noun

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

1. (chiefly passive) To clothe with, or as with, a vestment, or garment; to dress; to robe; to cover, surround, or encompass closely.
   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.
   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
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.
   , Book I Empire and dominion […] was vested in him.
4. (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
5. (law, 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.
   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
   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