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Nest

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nest¹

  • /nɛst/

Rhymes with -ɛst

Where it 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).

noun nests

  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
  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.
  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. US, slang, vulgar The pubic hair near a vulva or a vulva itself.

nest²

  • /nɛst/

Rhymes with -ɛst

Where it 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”).

verb nests · nesting · nested

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

Nest³

Where it comes from

Two possible origins:

* Welsh metronymic surname, from a diminutive of the personal name Agnes.

* Borrowed from German Nest (“nest”), probably a topographic surname.

proper noun Nests · Nist

  1. A surname from German or Welsh.

NEST⁴

noun NESTs

  1. abbreviation, initialism Initialism of native English-speaking teacher.native English-speaking teacher

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