nest

[[t]ne̱st[/t]]

nests, nesting, nested

1) N-COUNT: oft poss N A bird's nest is the home that it makes to lay its eggs in.

I can see an eagle's nest on the rocks.

2) VERB When a bird nests somewhere, it builds a nest and settles there to lay its eggs.

Some species may nest in close proximity to each other.

[V-ing] ...nesting sites.

3) N-COUNT: usu poss N A nest is a home that a group of insects or other creatures make in order to live in and give birth to their young in.

Some solitary bees make their nests in burrows in the soil.

...a rat's nest.

4) N-COUNT: usu with poss You can refer to a place as your nest when it is your home or where you feel comfortable and relaxed.

My wife seems to be building a nest of her own at Osborne House...

The baby had been asleep in her nest of pink and white blankets.

5) N-COUNT: N of n You can use nest to refer to a place where something bad is being done or to the people there who are doing it.

...Biarritz, notorious in those days as a nest of spies...

Are you telling me that you've got your own little nest of informers in the Police Department?

6) → See also , love nest

7) PHRASE: V and N inflect If you say that someone is feathering their nest, you mean that they are getting a lot of money out of something, so that they can lead a comfortable life.

Mary's much more interested in doing things for other people than feathering her own nest.

8) PHRASE: V inflects When children fly the nest, they leave their parents' home to live on their own.

a hornet's nest → see hornet

When their children had flown the nest, he and his wife moved to a thatched cottage in Dorset.

Syn:

leave home