den

Meaning

1. A small cavern or hollow place in the side of a hill, or among rocks; especially, a cave used by a wild animal for shelter or concealment.
2. A squalid or wretched place; a haunt.
3. A comfortable room not used for formal entertaining.
4. Synonym of fort (“structure improvised from furniture, etc. for playing games.”)
5. (obsolete) A narrow glen; a ravine; a dell.
6. A group of Cub Scouts of the same age who work on projects together.

lair

hole

private room

bield

breeding place

bandit’s den

criminal association

thieves’ den

small pit

flash-house

living quarters

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/dɛn/

From Middle English den, from Old English denn (“den, lair (of a beast), cave; a swine-pasture, a woodland pasture for swine”), from Proto-West Germanic *dani (“threshing-floor, barn-floor”). Cognate with Scots den (“den, lair”), Middle Dutch denne (“burrow, den, cave, attic”), Dutch den (“ship's deck, threshing-floor, mountain floor”), Middle Low German denne, danne (“threshing-floor, small dale”), German Tenne (“threshing-floor, barn for threshing”).