roost1
/ruːst
/noun
A place where birds regularly settle or congregate to rest at night, or where bats congregate to rest in the day: birds were hurrying to their evening roosts...
- High concentrations of the organism can be found in bird roosts, caves inhabited by bats, school yards, areas with rotten or decaying wood, and chicken coops.
- A bald eagle glides by en route to its evening roost on the branch of a cottonwood tree.
- Birds with permanent roosts became the couple's rather more distant but equally delightful acquaintances.
verb [no object]
(Of a bird or bat) settle or congregate for rest or sleep: migrating martins and swallows were settling to roost...
- Faced with the blank white page, I tried to visualize the knoll where I sat, gazing across a broad area of the river to a point where some birds were roosting.
- Birds roosted in the gables and in the huge old trees around the property.
- It is a great feeling to see the birds roosting, the bees gathering honey… We follow the bee's path.
Phrases
come home to roost
Origin
Old English hrōst, related to Dutch roest; of unknown ultimate origin.
Rhymes
roost2
/ruːst/noun
(In the Orkneys and Shetlands) a tidal race.
Origin
Mid 17th century: from Old Norse rǫst.