nest

Meaning

Noun

1. A structure built by a bird as a place to incubate eggs and rear young.
2. A place used by a monotreme, fish, amphibian or insect, for depositing eggs and hatching young.
3. A snug, comfortable, or cosy residence or job situation.
4. A retreat, or place of habitual resort.
5. A hideout for bad people to frequent or haunt; a den.
6. A home that a child or young adult shares with a parent or guardian.
7. A fixed number of cards in some bidding games awarded to the highest bidder allowing him to exchange any or all with cards in his hand.
8. A fortified position for a weapon.
9. A structure consisting of nested structures, such as nested loops or nested subroutine calls.
10. A circular bed of pasta, rice, etc. to be topped or filled with other foods.
11. An aggregated mass of any ore or mineral, in an isolated state, within a rock.
12. A collection of boxes, cases, or the like, of graduated size, each put within the one next larger.
13. A compact group of pulleys, gears, springs, etc., working together or collectively.
14. (US, slang, vulgar) The pubic hair near a vulva or a vulva itself.

Verb

1. (intransitive) To build or settle into a nest.
2. (intransitive) To settle into a home.
3. (intransitive) To successively neatly fit inside another.
4. (transitive) To place in, or as if in, a nest.
5. (transitive) To place one thing neatly inside another, and both inside yet another (and so on).
6. (intransitive) To hunt for birds' nests or their contents (usually "go nesting").

Synonyms

den

lair

hive

hole

🕳️

home

🏠

nidus

cage

beehive

nuzzle

burrow

snuggle

bird’s nest

roost

brood

box

📦

bed

🛏️

haunt

nestle

rookery

pack

build a nest

battery

🔋

bird-nest

strand

set

string

🪢

page

raft

width

knot

🪢

hiding place

dwelling

draw close

focal point

cuddle

dent

nesting place

hotbed

womb

busyness

bevy

business

bury

barrel

bunch

cocoon

building

coalition

clutter

build

Translations

nid

Nest

nido

nido

nest

ninho

niu

φωλιά

φωλιάζω

nestelen

nidificare

nicher

yuva

Pronounced as (IPA)

/nɛst/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: nest

Inherited from Old English: nest

Cognate with English: nether

Cognate with English: sit

Inherited from Middle English: nesten

Inherited from Old English: nistan

Cognate with Saterland Frisian: näästje

Cognate with Dutch: nesten

Cognate with German: nisten

In summary

From Middle English nest, nist, nyst, from Old English nest, from Proto-West Germanic *nest, from Proto-Germanic *nestą, from Proto-Indo-European *nisdós (“nest”), literally "where [the bird] sits down", a compound of *ni (“down”) (whence also English nether) + the zero-grade of the root *sed- (“to sit”) (whence also English sit).

Sentences

Satin bowerbirds nest between October and February .

Small numbers of seabirds nest on the coastal cliffs .

It's an ill bird that fouls its own nest .