Definition of "nest" in Anglais

noun

1. A structure built by a bird as a place to incubate eggs and rear young.

2. A place used by a monotreme, 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!

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.

   • 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.

verb

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").