nest
nounverbcommon in dialogue
- //nɛst//
A structure built by a bird as a place to incubate eggs and rear young.
noun
- 1
A structure built by a bird as a place to incubate eggs and rear young.
- 2
A place used by a mammal, 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.
a nest of thieves
That nightclub is a nest of strange people!
Capt. Kirby and I concluding it might be of great Service to the Eaſt-India Company to deſtroy such a Neſt of Rogues, were ready to ſail for that Purpoſe […]
Miss Carpenter told me that a short time previously some Bow Street constables had been sent down to this place to ferret out a crime which had been committed there, and that they reported there was not in all London such a nest of wickedness as they had explored.
- 6
A home that a child or young adult shares with a parent or guardian.
I am aspiring to leave the nest.
- 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.
I was forced to change trumps when I found the ace, jack, and nine of diamonds in the nest.
- 8
A fortified position for a weapon.
a machine gun nest
- 9
A structure consisting of nested structures, such as nested loops or nested subroutine calls.
Subroutine 4 cannot jump out of the subroutine nest in one step. Each return address must be popped from the stack in the order in which it was pushed onto the stack.
Our analysis to this point has assumed that in a loop nest, we are only parallelizing a single loop.
- 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
slangThe pubic hair near a vulva or a vulva itself.
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).
verb
- 1
To build or settle into a nest.
- 2
To settle into a home.
We loved the new house and were nesting there in two days!
- 3
To successively neatly fit inside another.
I bought a set of nesting mixing bowls for my mother.
- 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).
There would be much more room in the attic if you had nested all the empty boxes.
- 6
To hunt for birds' nests or their contents (usually "go nesting").
After the first heavy frost, when acorns were falling, I took a friend into partnership and went nesting.
Etymology
From Middle English nesten, nisten, from Old English nistan, nistian, from Proto-West Germanic *nistijan (“to nest, build a nest”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian näästje (“to nest”), Dutch nesten (“to nest”), German Low German nüsten (“to nest”), German nisten (“to nest”).
Forms
- plural
- nests
- past tense
- nested
- past participle
- nested
- present participle
- nesting
- third person singular
- nests
nest · A structure built by a bird as a place to incubate eggs and rear young.
Nest · A surname from German or Welsh.nestor · Any parrot of the genus Nestor.Nestor · An old and wise king in Homer's Iliad.