HOW TO PRONOUNCE
nest
/nɛst/
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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:47
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What does nest mean?
noun
- 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.
More meanings (19)
noun
- A retreat, or place of habitual resort.
- A hideout for bad people to frequent or haunt; a den.
- A home that a child or young adult shares with a parent or guardian.
- 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.
- A fortified position for a weapon.
- A structure consisting of nested structures, such as nested loops or nested subroutine calls.
- A circular bed of pasta, rice, etc. to be topped or filled with other foods.
- An aggregated mass of any ore or mineral, in an isolated state, within a rock.
- A collection of boxes, cases, or the like, of graduated size, each put within the one next larger.
- A compact group of pulleys, gears, springs, etc., working together or collectively.
- Initialism of native English-speaking teacher.
- (slang, vulgar) The pubic hair near a vulva or a vulva itself.
verb
- To build or settle into a nest.
- To settle into a home.
- To successively neatly fit inside another.
- To place in, or as if in, a nest.
- To place one thing neatly inside another, and both inside yet another (and so on).
- To hunt for birds' nests or their contents (usually "go nesting").
proper noun
- A surname from German or Welsh.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/nɛst/
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
Then he got into the nest, reared the stave in it as a mast, and hung up his shirt for a sail.
Out of this there arose, during the spring succeeding, a talk in the parish that Gabriel Oak was feathering his nest fast.
More book examples (3)
Ants from the nest came and examined and discussed these disgraced creatures, then carried their friends home and threw the strangers overboard.
The flat transgression of a school-boy, who, being overjoy’d with finding a bird’s nest, shows it his companion, and he steals it.
Things went smoothly on, till one day she found in the nest a little white egg, with a golden band about it.