- [countable] a hollow place or structure that a bird makes or chooses for laying its eggs in and sheltering its young
- sparrows building a nest of twigs and dry grass
Extra ExamplesTopics Birdsc1- A rat took the egg while the mother was away from the nest.
- The female spends all her time on the nest.
- The litters of several different females often occupy the same nest.
- The male and female take turns to sit on the nest.
- The male uses song to attract a female to his nest site.
- You should avoid disturbing the nest until after the eggs are hatched.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- ant’s
- bird’s
- wasp’s
- …
- build
- construct
- make
- …
- site
- hole
- box
- …
- away from a/the nest
- in a/the nest
- inside a/the nest
- …
Definitions on the go
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- [countable] a place where insects or other small creatures live and produce their young
- a wasps’ nest
- a nest of mice
- The snake will attack if disturbed inside its nest.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- ant’s
- bird’s
- wasp’s
- …
- build
- construct
- make
- …
- site
- hole
- box
- …
- away from a/the nest
- in a/the nest
- inside a/the nest
- …
- [singular] a secret place which is full of bad people and their activities
- a nest of thieves
- [singular] the home, thought of as the safe place where parents bring up their children
- to leave the nest (= leave your parents’ home)
- [countable, usually singular] a group or set of similar things that are made to fit inside each other
- a nest of tables
Word OriginOld English, of Germanic origin; related to Latin nidus, from the Indo-European bases of nether (meaning ‘down’) and sit.
Idioms
See nest in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee nest in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishfeather your (own) nest
- to make yourself richer, especially at somebody else's expense, by spending money on yourself that should be spent on somebody/something else
fly the nest
- (of a young bird) to become able to fly and leave its nest
- (informal) (of somebody’s child) to leave home and live somewhere else
- Her children have flown the nest.
a hornets’ nest
- a difficult situation in which a lot of people get very angry
- His letter to the papers stirred up a real hornets' nest.
a mare’s nest
- a discovery that seems interesting but is found to have no value
- a very complicated situation
- This area of the law is a veritable mare’s nest.
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nest