vest

plural vests

1. CanadaUSA 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[rosby] Lincoln, chapter X, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms: waistcoat

2. UKA 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.

   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, →ISBN, 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. archaicA loose robe or outer garment worn historically by men in Arab or Middle Eastern countries.

present singular third person vests · participle present vesting · participle past vested · past vested

1. passiveTo 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

   1 more example

   Came vested all in white, pure as her mind.

   1673, John Milton, Methought I Saw my Late Espoused Saint

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

   1 more example

   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.

   , Book I Empire and dominion […] was vested in him.

   1 more example

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

4. lawTo 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

   2 more examples

   an estate is vested in possession

   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

5. intransitivelaw(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. intransitivebusinessTo 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.

   3 more examples

   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.

   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

7. obsoleteTo invest; to put.

   to vest money in goods, land, or houses

plural Vests

1. A surname.