guests

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of guest.

   The hotel welcomed its guests with fresh flowers in every room.

   Several guests stayed late, chatting in the garden after the meal.

   Note

   A regular -s plural that carries every meaning of the singular: hotel patrons, house visitors, a broadcast's invited lineup, users let into a system without accounts of their own, even insects living unforced in another's nest. The same spelling is also the verb form of "to guest", so the sentence decides. In "the guests arrive" it is a plural noun. In "she guests on the show" it is a verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of guest.

   The violinist guests with the orchestra whenever her schedule allows.

   A different chef guests at the downtown restaurant for one weekend each month.

   Note

   Modern guesting is done by the visitor, not the host. The verb is intransitive, so it takes a preposition rather than an object: she guests on a broadcast, he guests with a band. A musician who guests often supplies what the lineup lacks, such as percussion in a string band. The older transitive use, in which a host guested a visitor by entertaining them, is obsolete.

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