Definition

1. Noun:

   • A perch on which birds, especially domestic fowl, rest or sleep: A bar, branch, or similar structure where birds settle.
   • A shelter or building with perches for birds: A place, such as a coop or henhouse, where birds are kept and can roost.

2. Verb (intransitive):

   • To settle or rest for sleep, as a bird does on a perch: To alight and stay on a roost.
   • To stay or settle down in a place, often for the night: Used figuratively for people or things coming to rest in a location.

Usage Examples

• Noun:

  • The chickens returned to their roost at dusk.
  • The old barn served as a roost for the pigeons.

• Verb:

  • The sparrows roost in the dense ivy on the wall.
  • After the long journey, the travelers roosted in the first inn they found.

Advanced Usage

• "to come home to roost": (idiom) Said of negative consequences, especially from one's own actions, that return to affect the originator.

  • His dishonest schemes finally came home to roost when he lost all his clients.

• "to rule the roost": (idiom) To be in charge or in control of a group, family, or situation.

  • In their household, it's the grandmother who rules the roost.

Variants and Related Words

• Rooster (n): An adult male chicken.
• Roosting (n/adj): The act of perching or settling to rest; providing a place to roost.
  • The roosting behavior of bats is fascinating.

Synonyms

• Noun: Perch, resting place, shelter.
• Verb: Perch, settle, alight, lodge.

Related Phrases

• Go to roost: To go to bed or to settle down for the night.
  • The farmhands go to roost early during the harvest season.

Noun

1. a perch on which domestic fowl rest or sleep
2. a shelter with perches for fowl or other birds

Verb

1. settle down or stay, as if on a roost
2. sit, as on a branch
   • The birds perched high in the tree