Other forms: chests
Your chest is the front of your body between your neck and your stomach, with the ribs under the skin and the heart and lungs behind them. You clutch it when the ball hits you; a doctor listens to it through a stethoscope and asks you to breathe in.
It comes with a set of health phrases you will hear at any surgery: chest pain, a chest infection, a tight chest, a chest X-ray. The other chest is a big strong box with a lid — a treasure chest, a tool chest, a chest of drawers, a chest freezer that opens upwards instead of outwards. In clothes shops chest is a measurement, the distance round the body under the arms, printed on the label beside the collar size. Two phrases are worth learning whole: get something off your chest, and play your cards close to your chest. Animals have chests too, though for horses and dogs you will also hear breast.
1nounchestThe front part of the body between the neck and the stomach.~96%
“He felt a sharp pain in his chest and sat down on the wall.”
2nountrunkA large strong box with a lid, used for storing or carrying things.~2%
“The tools were kept in a wooden chest under the bench.”
3nounmeasurementThe measurement around the body under the arms, used for clothing sizes.~2%
“The jacket is a 42 inch chest and still too tight across the back.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 16 sentences found in the wild and placed 16 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
chest is a part of the body.
Chest started life as a box. Ancient Greek κίστη was a box, basket or hamper, Latin took it as cista, and the Germanic languages borrowed it from there, so Old English ċest meant a chest, casket or basket. The body sense came later — the ribs read as a case with the heart and lungs shut inside.
Ancient Greek
κίστη — chest, box, basket, hamper
Latin
cista — chest, box
Proto-West Germanic
*kistu — chest, box
Old English
ċest
Middle English
cheste
English, today
chest
Built from
From Middle English cheste, chiste, from Old English ċest, ċist (“chest, casket; coffin; rush basket; box”), from Proto-West Germanic kistu (“chest, box”), from Latin cista (“chest, box”), from Ancient Greek κίστη (“chest, box, basket, hamper”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA