nest

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nɛst/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛst

Etymology 1

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 sits down", a compound of *ni (“down”) (whence also English nether) + the zero-grade of the root *sed- (“to sit”) (whence also English sit).

Noun

nest (plural nests)

1. A structure built by a bird as a place to incubate eggs and rear young.
2. A place used by another 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!

   • 1724, Charles Johnson, “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:

     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 […]

   • 1895, Frances Power Cobbe, chapter 10, in Life of Frances Power Cobbe‎, volume 1, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 254:

     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. (card games) 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. (military) A fortified position for a weapon.

   a machine gun nest

9. (computing) A structure consisting of nested structures, such as nested loops or nested subroutine calls.
   • 1981, Donnamaie E. White, Bit-Slice Design: Controllers and ALU's‎, Garland STPM Press, →ISBN, page 49:

     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.

   • 1993 August, Bwolen Yang et al., "Do&Merge: Integrating Parallel Loops and Reductions", in Languages and Compilers for Parallel Computing (workshop proceedings), Springer (1994), →ISBN, page 178:

     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. (geology) 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. (vulgar, slang, now US) The pubic hair near a vulva or a vulva itself.

    Synonyms: beav, beaver

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:nest.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

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”).

Verb

nest (third-person singular simple present nests, present participle nesting, simple past and past participle nested)

1. (intransitive, of animals) To build or settle into a nest.
2. (intransitive) To settle into a home.

   We loved the new house and were nesting there in two days!

3. (intransitive) To successively neatly fit inside another.

   I bought a set of nesting mixing bowls for my mother.

4. (transitive) To place in, or as if in, a nest.
5. (transitive) 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. (intransitive) To hunt for birds' nests or their contents (usually "go nesting").
   • 1895, Alfred Emanuel Smith, Francis Walton, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     After the first heavy frost, when acorns were falling, I took a friend into partnership and went nesting.

Translations

See also

• nest on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Nest in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• ENTs, Sten, TENS, ents, nets, sent, sent., snet, tens

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch nest, from Old Dutch nest, from Proto-West Germanic *nest, from Proto-Germanic *nestą. Cognate with English, German Nest etc.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nɛst/

• audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: nest
• Rhymes: -ɛst

Noun

nest n (plural nesten, diminutive nestje n)

1. A nest (place to hatch young, especially bird structure)

   Het vogeltje bouwt zijn nest in het riet. ― The little bird builds its nest among the reeds.

2. (colloquial) A nest (residence; retreat; hideout; home)

   Hij groeide op in een rood nest. ― He grew up in a left-wing household.

3. (colloquial) One's bed

   Kom uit je nest, ’t is hoogste tijd! ― Get out of bed, it’s high time!

4. (derogatory) A nasty, ill-behaving or pretentious child; a brat.

   Wat een verwend nest! ― What a spoiled, pretentious brat!

5. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) A piece of junk; rubbish.

Derived terms

Descendants

• Afrikaans: nes
• Negerhollands: nest, nes
• → Papiamentu: nèshi, nèishi, nesji

Elfdalian

Etymology

From Old Norse næstr, cognate with Swedish näst, English next.

Preposition

nest

1. by, near

Latgalian

Etymology

From Proto-Balto-Slavic *neśtei. Cognates include Latvian nest and Lithuanian nešti.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):
• Hyphenation: nest

Verb

nest (reflexive nestīs)

1. (transitive) to carry

Conjugation

References

• M. Bukšs, J. Placinskis (1973) Latgaļu volūdas gramatika un pareizraksteibas vōrdneica, Latgaļu izdevnīceiba, page 167
• Nicole Nau (2011) A short grammar of Latgalian, München: LINCOM GmbH, →ISBN, page 44

Latvian

Etymology

Cognate with Lithuanian nèšti (“to carry, bring”), see there for more.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nest/

This entry needs an audio pronunciation. If you are a native speaker with a microphone, please record this word. The recorded pronunciation will appear here when it's ready.

Verb

nest (transitive, 1st conjugation, present nesu, nes, nes, past nesu)

1. (transitive) to carry
2. (transitive) to bring

Conjugation

Derived terms

Middle English

Alternative forms

• neste, nist, nyst, neest

Etymology

From Old English nest, from Proto-West Germanic *nest, from Proto-Germanic *nestą.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nɛst/

Noun

nest (plural nestes)

1. nest

Descendants

• English: nest
• Scots: nest
• Yola: naesth

References

• “nest, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Middle High German

Alternative forms

• neste, nist, niste

Etymology

From Old High German nest, from Proto-Germanic *nistą.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nɛs̠t/

Noun

nest n (genitive singular nestes, plural nest or nester)

1. nest

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

Adverbial form of neste

Adverb

nest

1. next, second

   nest største - second largest

Derived terms

• nestleder

References

• “nest” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

Adverbial form of neste

Adverb

nest

1. next, second

   nest eldst - second oldest

References

• “nest” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *nest, from Proto-Germanic *nestą. Cognate with Old Church Slavonic гнѣздо (gnězdo, “nest”), Old Irish net (“nest”), Latin nīdus (“nest”), Sanskrit नीड (nīḍa, “nest”), Albanian neth (“sprout, bud”), Old Armenian նիստ (nist, “sitting; seat; property”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nest/

Noun

nest n

1. nest

   Ealle fuglas habbaþ heora nest ongunnen būtan þē and mē. Hwæs ābīdaþ wit?

   All the birds have started their nests except for you and me. What are we waiting for?

Declension

Related terms

• nestlian
• nistan

Descendants

• Middle English: nest, neste, nist, nyst, neest
  • English: nest
  • Scots: nest
  • Yola: naesth

Welsh

Alternative forms

• gnest
• gwnest

Pronunciation

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /nɛsd/,
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /neːsd/, , /nɛsd/,
• Rhymes: -ɛsd

Verb

nest (not mutable)

1. second-person singular preterite colloquial of gwneud