I. nest 1 /nest/ BrE AmE noun [countable]
[ Language: Old English ]
1 . BIRDS a place made or chosen by a bird to lay its eggs in and to live in:
a bird’s nest
In May the females build a nest and lay their eggs.
Young eagles leave the nest after only two months.
2 . INSECTS/ANIMALS a place where insects or small animals live:
a field mouse’s nest
3 . leave/fly the nest to leave your parents’ home and start living somewhere else when you are an adult:
Both daughters were ready to fly the nest.
4 . nest of spies/thieves/intrigue etc a place where people are secretly doing a lot of illegal or dishonest things
5 . nest of tables/boxes etc a set of tables etc that fit inside each other
⇨ feather your nest at ↑ feather 2 (1), ⇨ mare’s nest at ↑ mare (2), ⇨ ↑ love nest
• • •
COLLOCATIONS
■ verbs
▪ build/make a nest
Swallows build their nests out of mud.
▪ leave the nest
Barn owls leave the nest at two to three months.
■ types of nest
▪ a bird's/eagle's/crow's etc nest
an abandoned bird's nest
▪ a wasps'/hornets' nest
a wasps' nest in the attic
▪ an ants' nest
a red ants' nest
II. nest 2 BrE AmE verb
1 . [intransitive] to build or use a nest:
They say eagles used to nest in those rocks.
2 . [transitive] to organize information, especially in a computer program, so that some of the information is recognized as separate but is included or contained in a larger part of the information:
Phrases are nested in the dictionary entry for the first major word.