See also: Nest, NEST, nést, and n'est

EnglishEdit

PronunciationEdit

  • IPA(key): /nɛst/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛst

Etymology 1Edit

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).

 
A Taveta Golden-weaver's elaborate nest
 
Ground nest of Sprague's Pipit

NounEdit

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, Life of Frances Power Cobbe, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Volume 1, Chapter 10, p. 254,[1]
      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[2], 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
QuotationsEdit
Derived termsEdit
Terms derived from nest (noun)
TranslationsEdit
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Etymology 2Edit

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).

VerbEdit

 
An olive-backed sunbird (Cinnyris jugularis) nesting in Singapore

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
      After the first heavy frost, when acorns were falling, I took a friend into partnership and went nesting.
TranslationsEdit
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

See alsoEdit

AnagramsEdit

DutchEdit

EtymologyEdit

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

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

nest n (plural nesten, diminutive nestje n)

  1. A nest (place to hatch young, especially bird structure)
  2. A nest (snug residence; retreat; hideout; home)
  3. (colloquial) One's bed
    Kom uit je nest, ’t is hoogste tijd!
    Get out of bed, it’s high time!
  4. A nasty, ill-behaving or pretentious child; a brat.
    Wat een verwend nest!
    What a spoiled, pretentious brat!
  5. A piece of junk; rubbish.

Derived termsEdit

DescendantsEdit

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

ElfdalianEdit

EtymologyEdit

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

PrepositionEdit

nest

  1. by, near

LatgalianEdit

EtymologyEdit

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

PronunciationEdit

  • IPA(key): [ˈnʲæsʲtʲ]
  • Hyphenation: nest

VerbEdit

nest (reflexive nestīs)

  1. (transitive) to carry

ConjugationEdit

ReferencesEdit

  • 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

LatvianEdit

EtymologyEdit

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

PronunciationEdit

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VerbEdit

nest (tr., 1st conj., pres. nesu, nes, nes, past nesu)

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

ConjugationEdit

Derived termsEdit

Middle EnglishEdit

Alternative formsEdit

EtymologyEdit

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

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

nest (plural nestes)

  1. nest

DescendantsEdit

ReferencesEdit

Middle High GermanEdit

Alternative formsEdit

EtymologyEdit

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

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

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

  1. nest

Norwegian BokmålEdit

EtymologyEdit

Adverbial form of neste

AdverbEdit

nest

  1. next, second
    nest største - second largest

Derived termsEdit

ReferencesEdit

Norwegian NynorskEdit

EtymologyEdit

Adverbial form of neste

AdverbEdit

nest

  1. next, second
    nest eldst - second oldest

ReferencesEdit

Old EnglishEdit

EtymologyEdit

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).

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

nest n

  1. nest
    Ealle fuglas habbaþ heora nest ongunnen būtan þū and iċ. Hwæs ābīdaþ wit?
    All the birds have started their nests except for you and me. What are we waiting for?

DeclensionEdit

Related termsEdit

DescendantsEdit

WelshEdit

Alternative formsEdit

PronunciationEdit

VerbEdit

nest (not mutable)

  1. second-person singular preterite colloquial of gwneud