“nests” is a form of
nest
/nɛst/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms nests nesting nested Nist
- noun A structure built by a bird as a place to incubate eggs and rear young.
- noun A place used by a mammal, fish, amphibian or insect, for depositing eggs and hatching young.
- noun A snug, comfortable, or cosy residence or job situation.
- noun A retreat, or place of habitual resort.
- noun A hideout for bad people to frequent or haunt; a den. “a nest of thieves”
- noun A home that a child or young adult shares with a parent or guardian. “I am aspiring to leave the nest.”
- noun (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.”
- noun (military) A fortified position for a weapon. “a machine gun nest”
- verb (intransitive, of animals) To build or settle into a nest.
- verb (intransitive) To settle into a home. “We loved the new house and were nesting there in two days!”
- verb (intransitive) To successively neatly fit inside another. “I bought a set of nesting mixing bowls for my mother.”
- verb (transitive) To place in, or as if in, a nest.
- verb (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.”
- verb (intransitive) To hunt for birds' nests or their contents (usually "go nesting").
- proper noun A surname from German or Welsh.
Synonyms
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).
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”).
* Welsh metronymic surname, from a diminutive of the personal name Agnes.
* Borrowed from German Nest (“nest”), probably a topographic surname.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The bed or receptacle prepared by a fowl for holding her eggs and for hatching and rearing her young.
- noun Hence: the place in which the eggs of other animals, as insects, turtles, etc., are laid and hatched; a snug place in which young animals are reared. Bentley.
- verb To build and occupy a nest.
- verb To put into a nest; to form a nest for. From him who nested himself into the chief power. South.
Etymology [AS. nest; akin to D. & G. nest, Sw. näste, L. nidus, for nisdus, Skr. ni resting place, nest; cf. Lith. lizdas, Arm. neiz, Gael. & Ir. nead. Prob. from the particle ni down, Skr. ni + the root of E. sit, and thus orig., a place to sit down in. sq. root 264. See Nether, and Sit, and cf. Eyas, Nidification, Nye.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “nest”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details