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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

nest.

A structure built by a bird as a place to incubate eggs and rear young.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/nɛst/
  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!
  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.

  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. The pubic hair near a vulva or a vulva itself.

    US · slang · vulgar
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁en-? Proto-Indo-European *ní Proto-Indo-European *sed- Proto-Indo-European *-ós Proto-Indo-European *nisdós Proto-Germanic *nestą Proto-West Germanic *nest Old English nest Middle English nest English nest 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/nɛst/
  1. To build or settle into a nest.

    intransitive
  2. To settle into a home.

    intransitive
    We loved the new house and were nesting there in two days!
  3. To successively neatly fit inside another.

    intransitive
    I bought a set of nesting mixing bowls for my mother.
  4. To place in, or as if in, a nest.

    transitive
  5. To place one thing neatly inside another, and both inside yet another (and so on).

    transitive
    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").

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

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”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.