/ nest; NAmE / noun , verb
■ noun
1.
[ C ] a hollow place or structure that a bird makes or chooses for laying its eggs in and sheltering its young
2.
[ C ] a place where insects or other small creatures live and produce their young
3.
[ sing. ] a secret place which is full of bad people and their activities :
a nest of thieves
4.
[ sing. ] the home, thought of as the safe place where parents bring up their children :
to leave the nest (= leave your parents' home)
—see also empty nest
5.
[ C , usually sing. ] a group or set of similar things that are made to fit inside each other :
a nest of tables
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IDIOMS
see feather verb , fly verb , hornet , mare
■ verb
1.
[ v ] to make and use a nest :
Thousands of seabirds are nesting on the cliffs.
2.
[ vn ] ( technical ) to put types of information together, or inside each other, so that they form a single unit
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WORD ORIGIN
Old English , of Germanic origin; related to Latin nidus , from the Indo-European bases of nether (meaning down ) and sit .