nest
- 01 A2 Elementary
n.a structure built by a bird or animal to keep its eggs or babies safe.
n.a structure constructed by a bird, insect, or other animal for the purpose of depositing eggs and rearing young.
Simple“We found a small bird's nest hidden high up in the apple tree.”
In context“The eagle constructed a massive nest of sticks and moss on the inaccessible cliff face to protect its fledglings from predators.”
- 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
n.a set of similar objects of different sizes that fit inside one another.
n.a collection of objects of graduated size, each designed to be stored within the next larger one.
Simple“She bought a nest of tables that saved a lot of space in the small living room.”
In context“The kitchen was equipped with a convenient nest of mixing bowls, ranging from a small prep dish to a large five-litre vessel.”
- 03 C1 Advanced
n.a hidden or protected place for a weapon, like a machine gun.
n.a fortified or concealed position for a weapon or a small group of soldiers.
Simple“The soldiers spotted a sniper's nest in the clock tower.”
In context“The infantry unit was tasked with neutralising a machine-gun nest that had pinned down the advancing platoon for several hours.”
- 04 B1 Intermediate
v.to build or live in a nest.
v.to build or occupy a nest; by extension, to settle into a comfortable home environment.
Simple“Many birds prefer to nest in the thick bushes near the river.”
In context“The rare species of sea turtle returns to this specific beach every year to nest in the soft sand above the high-tide mark.”
- 05 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.to place one thing inside another, or to fit together in a stack.
v.to fit an object or a piece of data inside another of the same type.
Simple“You can nest these plastic boxes to save space in the cupboard.”
In context“The programmer had to nest several loops to process the multi-dimensional array efficiently, though it made the code harder to read.”
UsageOften used in programming to describe loops or functions inside other loops or functions.
“When I bought him a nest of saucepans and started wanging on about new thinking on the matter of poached eggs, I was basically role-playing a parent proudly anticipating their child’s next chapter.”
“Rapid urban growth across Africa has also played its part, transforming landscapes, and destroying many of the tall trees that the birds nest in.”
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”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.