English Explanatory Dictionary

nest

English dictionary entry

Meanings

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.
verb
  1. To build or settle into a nest.
  2. To settle into a home.
  3. To successively neatly fit inside another.
  4. To place in, or as if in, a nest.
  5. To place one thing neatly inside another, and both inside yet another (and so on).
  6. To hunt for birds' nests or their contents (usually "go nesting").
name
  1. A surname from German or Welsh.
noun
  1. Initialism of native English-speaking teacher.

Pronunciation

/nɛst/ en-us-nest.ogg

Word forms

nest nests nesting nested Nist

Etymology

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).

Synonyms

beav beaver

Related words

nestling Nest in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Derived words

ant nest beetle bird in a nest bird-nest bird's nest birdsnest bird's nest cut bird's-nest fern bird's nest fungus bird's-nest orchid bird's nest pudding bird's nest soup bird's nest swing boar's nest brood nest clapnest crowsnest crow's-nest crow's nest cuckoo's nest denest disnest don't shit in your own nest edible bird's nest egg in a nest empty nest empty-nest syndrome empty nest syndrome feather one's nest feather one's own nest fly the nest foul one's own nest full nest syndrome gravel nest hangnest Hawks Nest hive nest hoorah's nest hornet's nest hornets' nest hurrah's nest it's an ill bird that fouls its own nest language nest leave the nest love nest mare's-nest mare's nest mudnester nestage nest box nestbuilding nestcam nest egg nestful nesthole nestle nestless nestlet nestlike nestmaking nestmate

Translations

Abkhaz: ахтәалара Acehnese: eumpung Afrikaans: nes Albanian: fole Southern Altai: уйа Amharic: ጎጆ Ao: tesep Western Apache: itʼoh Arabic: عُشّ Arabic: أَعْشَاش Arabic: وَكْر Arabic: عش Arabic: وكر Arabic: مَعْقَل Chadian Arabic: عش Aragonese: niedo Armenian: բույն Aromanian: cuibar Aromanian: cuib Assamese: বাহ Asturian: nieru Asturian: níu Asturian: ñíu Azerbaijani: yuva Bangi: zumbu Bashkir: оя Basque: habia Belarusian: гняздо́ Bengali: নীড় Bengali: আবাস Bhojpuri: घोंसला Central Bikol: tataghan Central Bikol: salag Breton: neizh Bulgarian: гнездо́ Burmese: သိုက် Burmese: အသိုက် Burmese: မြုံ Canela: jahê Carpathian Rusyn: гнїздо́ Catalan: niu Cebuano: salag Chamicuro: imajka Chechen: бен Tedim Chin: bu Chinese Cantonese: 竇 /窦 Chinese: вә Chinese: 岫 Chinese Mandarin: 鳥巢 /鸟巢 Chinese Mandarin: 巢 Chinese Mandarin: 窩 /窝 Chukchi: кытчыгъёԓгын Ngazidja Comorian: traya Corsican: nidu Czech: hnízdo Dutch: in elkaar stapelen Finnish: laittaa sisäkkäin French: emboîter Hungarian: egymásba rak Polish: zagnieździć Portuguese: aninhar Swedish: stapla
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