A rest is an object used for supporting another, specific object, which is set to rest upon it (i.e. finding stability) and often diverts its weight to or by it.
- In the medieval armour of the horsed man-at-arms, and later in the armour of the tournament, a contrivance was fixed to the side of the body-armour near the right arm-pit, in which the butt-end of the lance was placed to prevent the lance being driven back after striking the opponent at full charge.
Hence a knight, as a preliminary to the charge, laid his lance in rest. This rest is a shortened form of arrest, to check, stop, as is seen by the French equivalent, arret.
- Later, rest became the name of the forked support with iron-shod spike carried by the soldier till the end of the 17th century as a rest for the heavy musket.
- Today, a rest is the support for the cue in billiards, snooker and pool to be used when the striking ball is out of reach of the natural rest formed by the hand.
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