nest
A structure built by a bird as a place to incubate eggs and rear young.
Noun 4 meanings
A structure built by a bird as a place to incubate eggs and rear young.
A place used by a mammal, fish, amphibian or insect, for depositing eggs and hatching young.
A snug, comfortable, or cosy residence or job situation.
A retreat, or place of habitual resort.
Verb 4 meanings
To build or settle into a nest.
To settle into a home.
“We loved the new house and were nesting there in two days!”
To successively neatly fit inside another.
“I bought a set of nesting mixing bowls for my mother.”
To place in, or as if in, a nest.
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).
NEST at a glance
NEST has 4 letters and scores 4 points in Scrabble (N 1 + E 1 + S 1 + T 1) and 5 in Words With Friends, before board bonuses. It ranks #6,283 by how often it appears in everyday English. It is valid in ENABLE, NWL2023, Collins/SOWPODS.
Rhymes with nest
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