nest
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /nɛst/
rhymes: -ɛst
Forms: form: nests
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).
Senses: glosses: A structure built by a bird as a place to incubate eggs and rear young.
glosses: A place used by a monotreme, fish, amphibian or insect, for depositing eggs and hatching young.
glosses: A snug, comfortable, or cosy residence or job situation.
glosses: A retreat, or place of habitual resort.
examples: text: a nest of thieves
text: That nightclub is a nest of strange people!
text: 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 […]
ref: 1724, Charles Johnson [pseudonym], “Of Capt. Edward England, and His Crew. [A Letter from Captain Makra, dated at Bombay, Nov. 16, 1720.]”, in A General History of the Pyrates, […], 2nd edition, London: Printed for, and sold by T. Warner, […], →OCLC, page 119:
text: 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.
ref: 1895, Frances Power Cobbe, chapter 10, in Life of Frances Power Cobbe, volume 1, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 254:
glosses: A hideout for bad people to frequent or haunt; a den.
examples: text: I am aspiring to leave the nest.
glosses: A home that a child or young adult shares with a parent or guardian.
examples: text: I was forced to change trumps when I found the ace, jack, and nine of diamonds in the nest.
topics: card-games
games
glosses: 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.
examples: text: a machine gun nest
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: A fortified position for a weapon.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1981, Donnamaie E. White, Bit-Slice Design: Controllers and ALU's, Garland STPM Press, →ISBN, page 49:
text: Our analysis to this point has assumed that in a loop nest, we are only parallelizing a single loop.
ref: 1993 August, Bwolen Yang et al., "Do&Merge: Integrating Parallel Loops and Reductions", in Languages and Compilers for Parallel Computing (workshop proceedings), Springer (1994), page 178
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: A structure consisting of nested structures, such as nested loops or nested subroutine calls.
glosses: A circular bed of pasta, rice, etc. to be topped or filled with other foods.
topics: geography
geology
natural-sciences
glosses: An aggregated mass of any ore or mineral, in an isolated state, within a rock.
glosses: A collection of boxes, cases, or the like, of graduated size, each put within the one next larger.
glosses: A compact group of pulleys, gears, springs, etc., working together or collectively.
synonyms: beav
beaver
glosses: The pubic hair near a vulva or a vulva itself.
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: ant nest beetle
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: bird in a nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: bird-nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: bird's nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: birdsnest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: bird's nest cut
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: bird's-nest fern
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: bird's nest fungus
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: bird's-nest orchid
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: bird's nest pudding
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: bird's nest soup
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: bird's nest swing
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: boar's nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: brood nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: clapnest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: crowsnest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: crow's-nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: crow's nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: cuckoo's nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: denest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: disnest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: don't shit in your own nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: edible bird's nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: egg in a nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: empty nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: empty-nest syndrome
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: empty nest syndrome
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: feather one's nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: feather one's own nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: fly the nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: foul one's own nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: full nest syndrome
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: gravel nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: hangnest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: hive nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: hoorah's nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: hornets' nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: hornet's nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: hurrah's nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: it's an ill bird that fouls its own nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: language nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: leave the nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: love nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: mare's nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: mare's-nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: mudnester
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: nestage
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: nest box
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: nestbuilding
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: nestcam
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: nest egg
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: nestful
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: nesthole
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: nestle
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: nestless
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: nestlet
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: nestlike
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: nestmaking
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: nestmate
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: nest of vipers
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: nestohedron
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: nest scrape
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: neststraw
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: nest together
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: nestward
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: nesty
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: rat's nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: stick-nest rat
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: stir up a hornets' nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: tangled nest spider
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: trap nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: UFO nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: unnest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: Wasps Nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: yellow bird's-nest
sense: Terms derived from nest (noun)
word: Zapotec nest
Related terms: nestling