Definition of nest in English:

nest

noun nɛstnɛst

1A structure or place made or chosen by a bird for laying eggs and sheltering its young.
鸟巢，鸟窝
two sparrows frantically building a nest
as modifier a nest site
Example sentencesExamples
- Columbids will re-use nests and will build nests on top of abandoned bird nests.
- The male feeds the female on the nest and helps her brood the young when they first hatch.
- Again the attraction is bird watching, especially pied shags feeding the young birds in their nests, great crested grebe and large numbers of paradise ducks.
- After one day in the nest, the young leap to the ground or water, often quite a long jump.
- While they are not highly territorial with their own species, they are aggressive toward other species and may drive native birds out of their nests.
- Once the young leave the nest, the parents continue to feed them for about a week.
- I've heard that when young birds leave the nest, parents will mob a lot more actively almost to show what is danger and what isn't.
- When they are raising young or robbing nests, Steller's Jays become very quiet and inconspicuous.
- Both birds work at nest building, but before this begins there is much play.
- The young leave the nest within a day of hatching and follow their parents out into the marsh.
- One to three days after hatching, the young leave the nest and hide in nearby cover.
- Brood parasitic birds lay eggs in the nests of host birds that raise the parasitic offspring to independence.
- But this year, the birds surprised conservationists by selecting a nest site deep in the forest.
- Last summer, Caitlin observed bald eaglets fledging from nests at two sites.
- The female stays on the nest and broods the young for the first week or so after they hatch.
- They said this work should have been delayed until after the birds had nested and young had left the nests.
- First, the flight trajectory will obviously depend on the way in which a bird will enter its nest site.
- This bird was feeding young in a nest perched in the eaves of one of the temple buildings.
- The young leave the nest soon after they hatch and find their own food immediately.
- All birds in the nest need protein, the kind that comes from any type of bug.
Synonyms
roost, eyrie
nest box, nesting box
North American birdhouse
1. 1.1 A place where an insect or other animal breeds or shelters.
  巢，窝，穴
  an ants' nest
  一个蚁穴。
  Example sentencesExamples
  Eastern woodlands Aphaenogaster ants make twenty-inch-deep nests occupied by a few hundred workers.
  They use their long claws to expose the insect's nests.
  The pupation is often completed within the nest of the ants.
  EPS, polyurethane, and isocyanurate foam provide the ideal environment for an insect nest.
  A typical army ant species lives in nests underground that are built out of the living bodies of its workers.
  Just as humans keep cows for their milk, certain ant species rear aphids and other insects in their nests and consume their secretions.
  Instead of finding something for her to eat, she found a nest of large insects of the predatory variety.
  Emigrations were induced by removing the roof slide from the old nest, forcing the ants to find a new home.
  Which of them will prefer football and which the ant nest, we'll have to wait and see.
  Common wasps are social insects and live in nests of up to around 10,000 workers.
  And of course you can see green ant nests if you're walking through the bush throughout Australia, can't you?
  The caterpillar is taken inside the ant nest where it promptly turns carnivorous and starts devouring its hosts' eggs and young.
  In the chaos, the wasp slips unnoticed through the ant nest and preys on the unguarded caterpillar.
  When the forest floor is blanketed in snow, the birds use their powerful bills to dig out ant nests from tree trunks and tree bases.
  The majority of these insects build nests and therefore suitable nest sites must be maintained.
  Insect nests have guards who deter entry by both conspecific and allospecific intruders.
  The second ant emerging from the nest in search of food was much more likely to follow the trail left by the first ant than to go in search of the second food source.
  Colin Marlow, 56, was attacked by the insects after disturbing a nest on his smallholding.
  Leaf-cutting ants travel from their nests to trees and hack off bits of leaves, which they grip in their mandibles.
  In others, it may include completion of a rite of passage, such as getting buried up to your chin in an ant nest on your thirteenth birthday.
  Synonyms
  lair, den, drey, lodge, burrow, set, form
2. 1.2 Something in the form of a bowl or layer, used to hold, protect, or support something.
  potato nests filled with okra
  土豆盏盛羊角豆。
  Example sentencesExamples
  The only person not in black is a child making a nest of stones near a cairn of rocks.
  Beneath a nest of angel hair phyllo shreds is a layer of bizarre, bland melted cheese in a pool of honey syrup.
  He had a nest of black hair and his skin was tanned and wrinkled, though not necessarily by age.
  My God, each box is a perfect reduced-impact nest of quality bubble wrap.
  He was lying on his back in a nest of bedding on the floor of the central corridor, and the past was confusing.
  They would sit at the bottom of the stands with their wares sitting in a nest of ice chipped from a big block, answering requests from the fans above them.
  Mrs Grey is, as I write, curled up on the floor of my study in a nest of patchwork pieces.
  Maybe we could have made some raspberry vinaigrette, draped ourselves over a nest of baby greens, if you know what I mean.
  Afterwards, fuelled by chocolate Santa heads, I would sit in a nest of crumpled, torn wrapping paper, impatient for the new year to move quickly.
  Colored eggs in a nest of moss await display on a tabletop or mantelpiece.
  Fill meringue nests by first adding some chopped mango, then a dollop of passion fruit cream, finishing off with more chopped mango.
  Mrs Jellyby, sitting in quite a nest of waste paper, drank coffee all the evening, and dictated at intervals to her eldest daughter.
  Pull the baby runners back into the rows so they are not trodden on later, lifting the ripening berries up and carefully coddling each plant in a nest of straw.
  When I make these for the real event I'm going to make bowls or nests for the apples to sit in so no one has to tear away spiky sugar.
  It was topped with a nest of straw potatoes and drizzled with a mustard and yoghurt dip.
  As she waits with the horse, he takes his time finding his way around and she falls asleep on a nest of leaves near the horse.
  Brian uncomfortably fluffed up a nest of sorts on the couch.
  The woman on the other hand had dark, auburn hair that was pulled back into a nest of braids on the back of her head.
  Settled within a nest of blankets, the teenager found it very hard to get back into typing.
  One of my personal favourites is the pisto manchego, a smoky-tasting sautéed veggie dish served in a crisp nest of shredded potato.
  In the end I gave in and joined the two of them and then all three of us snoozed the rest of the day away, all snuggled together in a nest of warm wool.
3. 1.3 A person's snug or secluded retreat.
  （人的）窝，窟；温床
  I'm off to my cosy nest
  Example sentencesExamples
  Many of these hill stations began life as long ago as the 1820s, when early British settlers first sought nests in attractive locations.
  His library became a nest, a retreat of perfect ideas perfectly poised.
  Make your bedroom a snug, safe nest, with a maximum of comfort and a minimum of distraction.
  No sooner are you snug in your new nest than you find that units on your floor are being used as a hotel, with people coming and going.
  Synonyms
  hideaway, hiding place, hideout, retreat, shelter, refuge, snuggery, nook, den, haunt
  informal hidey-hole
2A place filled with undesirable people, activities, or things.
窝点，巢穴
a nest of spies
一个特务窝点。
Example sentencesExamples
- Interesting, cos they are not portrayed as a tight, likeable team, but a nest of corruption and depraved power-to-commerce cynicism.
- This explains why he would hunt a nest of vampires alone.
- To wrap things up, he repeats that he sees the RA as a great opportunity, not as a nest of problems.
- Welfare is now seen as a tool for training the impoverished, not a nest of dependence or a barrier to performance.
- But now U.S. forces feels it's a nest of former regime loyalists and anti coalition fighters.
- The Caribbean was a nest of pirates until cleaned up in the eighteenth century.
- I been working for Rorake for some time but because some of our men found a nest of vampires I had to go.
- He winces when a dozen members of Company B are mistaken for a nest of rebels one night and are targeted for a U.S. air strike.
- I knew enough to see that the text was a nest of problems which competent scholars could go on investigating, but I had lost my path through the maze.
- This development was seized on by right-wing commentators to argue that the American CP was nothing but a nest of spies.
- He also discovers a nest of intrigue, decadence and a heathen willingness to murder people very casually if they get in your way.
- They know what it means to be tiny spots on the map, remembered only if embroiled in a terrible conflict that turns the whole region into a nest of unrest.
- He is led off to execution, content to ‘die after a nest of dukes’.
- It made me realise I'm living in a nest of privileged Tory vipers!
- Apparently there is something wrong with this - cleaning out a nest of public nuisances, expensive ones at that.
- It took me another three seminars to realise that I'd accidentally fallen into a nest of revolutionary socialists.
- A ‘bien-pensant liberal’ in a nest of high Tories, she works all the harder to be a good person.
- All over the region, people are revisiting a nest of grievances.
- This is as if the Spycatcher affair ten years ago hadn't showed MI5 to be a nest of hard right conspirators.
- Most charges focus on the Mafia's control of New York's waterfront, vast and beautiful, but for years a nest of corruption.
Synonyms
hotbed, den, breeding ground, cradle, seedbed, forcing house
3A set of similar objects of graduated sizes, made so that each smaller one fits into the next in size for storage.
（由大到小可依次套叠的）一套
a nest of tables
一个特务窝点。
Example sentencesExamples
- This consists of a nest of polished steel tubes that have been likened both to organ pipes and to the pine trunks of the Finnish forests.
- I sit on a sofa that is part of an old three-piece suite around a nest of tables.
- In the burial chamber, a nest of four golden shrines, each sitting within the other, are removed, to reveal a stone sarcophagus.
- They have been flying out of her shop, which is why she has extended the range of Ercol reissues to include a settle, a dining table and a nest of tables.
- Greenapple has produced a little nest of transparent glass tables, each made from a single sheet of glass.
- Four months ago the desk gave birth to a nest of tables.
Synonyms
cluster, set, group, assemblage

verb nɛstnɛst

1no object (of a bird or other animal) use or build a nest.
（鸟或其他动物）筑巢
the owls often nest in barns
猫头鹰经常把巢筑在谷仓中。
Example sentencesExamples
- The birds were nesting next to my bedroom window.
- Is it simply because the CLA exists in part to kill small creatures and they would like the moors free of disturbance so small birds can nest in peace?
- In 1982 the clock stopped when snow landed on it and the hands froze and some years later it stopped again when a bird nested in it.
- It added that the contractor had taken care to look and see if any birds were nesting in the trees before starting work.
- The birds of prey have nested at the site since 2001 and were the first to do so in the Lake District for 150 years.
- Neither the pet shop proprietor nor the new owner of the birds knew that the owls nest in underground burrows, which requires deep soil.
- It looked like a bird was nesting on the top of her head.
- Mr Ritchies said it was known that three breeding pairs of barn owls nest in the area where it is proposed to put the turbines and red kite recently reintroduced in Wiltshire are seen on top the hill.
- My daughter then pointed out a tree to the right of the cricket green as you look towards the common, where two other similar birds were nesting.
- Prior to the sharp decline of Peregrines from the raptor's indigenous habitat, the birds nested mainly on steep cliffs, which seems like a very wild bird-like thing to do.
- Mice nested in the wellington boots, and the tank-suit got a bad case of wet rot from a small hole in the roof.
- Wildlife experts are delighted with the record number of youngsters, particularly as it is only the second year the birds have nested in the county in living memory.
- There they grew to a modest size, birds nested in them and they appeared to cause no trouble.
- Interesting water birds and several species of ducks and warblers nest there.
- Many birds are nesting earlier than they used to, while others are overwintering in this country instead of migrating to warmer parts.
- I decided that the birds could nest anywhere except in the stand of horse chestnut trees outside my back door.
- Areas scraped out for the embankments filled with water over the wet winter and birds are already nesting there.
- The Dismal supports a hundred different bird species nesting within the refuge; another hundred are known to use the area.
- This protected bird species had nested at the Baltic for many years and had to be moved to specially built nesting areas further down the river.
- They said this work should have been delayed until after the birds had nested and young had left the nests.
2with object Fit (an object or objects) inside a larger one.
使（物体）套叠于更大的物体之中
the town is nested inside a large crater on the flanks of a volcano
这座城镇坐落在火山侧坡一处大的火山口内。
Example sentencesExamples
- And then a counter, all along the wall, only the cabinets below were all for wine - pull out drawers in which bottles were nested.
- The slender Caprivi Strip is nested between Zambia and Botswana and is a wet area of woodland blessed with a few rivers.
- Covering 320 square kilometers, it is nested in the southwestern corner of the country.
- I was explaining how you get more crockery in if you nest the little bowls inside the big bowls when I sensed that Mel was somehow not with me.
- Then I decided to nest Bonobo inside, and they got even clearer.
- To break up the expanse of a not-so-Victorian double garage door, the couple came up with a design that looks like two structures, one nested inside the other.
- This experience is even more pronounced in the Double Torqued Ellipses, which consist of two curving palisades nested one inside the other.
- The final tip is to try not to nest tables inside of each other.
- A hole was made in the bottom of the tube with a fine needle and the tube was nested inside a similar tube.
- The actual volcanic crater is one of the largest in the world as the town of Soufriere is neatly nested into the land based half, while the other portion lies under water and extends northward in the direction of Martinique's Soufiere.
- The disk is nested inside an elliptical ring of older, cooler, redder stars, which was seen in previous Hubble and ground-based observations.
- Kettles were extremely durable and easily transported by nesting them inside one another.
1. 2.1no object (of a set of objects) fit inside one another.
  （一套物件）逐个套叠
  Russian dolls that nest inside one another
  一套可依次套叠的俄罗斯套娃。
  Example sentencesExamples
  Still, only golf sets up its challenges in such a tidy row, a telescoping succession like that of Russian dolls nested one inside the other.
  This pursuit of knowledge becomes a set of dolls nested within other dolls, the desire to fit and the desire to contrast plays into a choral performance on the theme of instability of all categories of life and knowing.
  In the 28 January print issue of PRL, researchers calculate that a group of concentric nanotubes nested inside an outer set of tubes can slide back and forth a billion times every second.
  With such technology parts can just be nested together and then joined on remote electronic command.
  On closer inspection, Iijima saw that these were hollow cylinders of carbon, and that each one contained several cylinders nested inside one another like Russian dolls.
  They say the result could explain why graphite lubricant - a spray of randomly oriented flakes - works so well, and why carbon nanotubes nested inside each other spin unexpectedly freely.
  Valves of this genus are commonly found nested inside each other.
2. 2.2 (especially in computing and linguistics) place (an object or element) in a lower position in a hierarchy.
  （尤作电脑和语言学用语）嵌套（物体，成分）
  Example sentencesExamples
  You can perform conditional branching, parallel process flows, nested sub-processes, process joins, and other related features.
  The RANDOM statement of this procedure was used because the haploid random factor was nested within the series factor.
  This can be accomplished by nesting elements under the parent element.
  These pages are in fact encrypted (with the public key of that rewebber) nested URLs again, which point to the next rewebber.
  There's a growing belief that searching, rather than sorting through nested folders, is the next revolution in how people use computers.
  The distribution of pattern elements is nested, such that species with less common elements such as rump patches also have more common elements such as wing bars.
  This practice taxes the dial-up user's patience by wasting bandwidth on code forking, deeply nested tables, spacer pixels and other image hacks, and outdated or invalid tags and attributes.
  The same trait often appears in living things which are not believed to be closely related by evolution, and this occurs often enough to vitiate Eldredge's premise about nested hierarchies.
  Some of you may be asking, ‘if I can run one nested server, why not two or three?’
  In fact, I argue that evolutionary processes are the only known processes which can generate such nested hierarchies.
  Elements are thus nested within broader elements, according to Ellis, and each element has its own time.
  The images are called in as background images for two nested elements.
  Guess what, gene expression produces the same nested hierarchy of relatedness, with chimps our closest relatives, as we find for genes.
  I just took a look at their home page, and they have tables nested five deep in some places.
  A subquery occurs when a developer nests one SQL statement within another SQL statement.
  HTML Tables can be nested within each other to produce a variety of different design layouts for websites.
  You then navigate to the option which you want using the numeric keypad and go further down each nested menu.
  The enterprise edition of this software allows for companies to manage multiple, nested clusters of computing grids that are spread around an office complex or campus across multiple networks.
  Despite clustering in heterochromatin, Dasheng elements are not nested, suggesting their potential value as molecular markers for these marker-poor regions.
  When possessive relationships are nested, all but the last element are construct and all but the first are genitive: ‘head horse-of the-man-of’.

Derivatives

nestful

nounPlural nestfuls

See a nestful of newly hatched wood ducks being told to take a 15-foot jump to join their mother in the lake below.
Example sentencesExamples
- To charm wavering Tories, the Lib Dems have grabbed a nestful of shiny rightwing policies.

nest-like

adjective

The first visible sign of sexual differentiation is the formation of a nest-like structure made of so-called Hülle cells.
Example sentencesExamples
- The arrangements form repeating units called stem cell niches and provide nest-like microenvironments that house the adult stem cells and their immediate daughter cells.
- By adjusting the rate of withdrawal, rinsing, and drying, they could make the molecules bend back onto themselves like needle eyes, nooses, or even nest-like coils.
- She was, indeed, lying in a nest-like bed of red, blue, gold and green velvet pillows.
- On the forest floor is an absurd nest-like structure.

Origin

Old English, of Germanic origin; related to Latin nidus, from the Indo-European bases of nether (meaning 'down') and sit.

A nest was originally a ‘sitting-down place’. The Old English word comes from the same ancient roots as nether (Old English) and sit (Old English). The related word nestle (Old English) first meant ‘build a nest’, and did not take on its modern meaning until the 16th century. Niche (early 17th century), ‘a shallow recess’ or ‘a comfortable or suitable position’, is another related word.

Rhymes

abreast, arrest, attest, beau geste, behest, bequest, best, blessed, blest, breast, Brest, Bucharest, Budapest, celeste, chest, contest, crest, digest, divest, guest, hest, infest, ingest, jest, lest, Midwest, molest, northwest, pest, prestressed, protest, quest, rest, self-addressed, self-confessed, self-possessed, southwest, suggest, test, Trieste, unaddressed, unexpressed, unimpressed, unpressed, unstressed, vest, west, wrest, zest

Definition of nest in US English:

nest

nounnestnɛst

1A structure or place made or chosen by a bird for laying eggs and sheltering its young.
鸟巢，鸟窝
Example sentencesExamples
- The young leave the nest within a day of hatching and follow their parents out into the marsh.
- First, the flight trajectory will obviously depend on the way in which a bird will enter its nest site.
- Columbids will re-use nests and will build nests on top of abandoned bird nests.
- They said this work should have been delayed until after the birds had nested and young had left the nests.
- Once the young leave the nest, the parents continue to feed them for about a week.
- This bird was feeding young in a nest perched in the eaves of one of the temple buildings.
- The young leave the nest soon after they hatch and find their own food immediately.
- Brood parasitic birds lay eggs in the nests of host birds that raise the parasitic offspring to independence.
- When they are raising young or robbing nests, Steller's Jays become very quiet and inconspicuous.
- Again the attraction is bird watching, especially pied shags feeding the young birds in their nests, great crested grebe and large numbers of paradise ducks.
- After one day in the nest, the young leap to the ground or water, often quite a long jump.
- The male feeds the female on the nest and helps her brood the young when they first hatch.
- The female stays on the nest and broods the young for the first week or so after they hatch.
- Last summer, Caitlin observed bald eaglets fledging from nests at two sites.
- I've heard that when young birds leave the nest, parents will mob a lot more actively almost to show what is danger and what isn't.
- All birds in the nest need protein, the kind that comes from any type of bug.
- While they are not highly territorial with their own species, they are aggressive toward other species and may drive native birds out of their nests.
- Both birds work at nest building, but before this begins there is much play.
- But this year, the birds surprised conservationists by selecting a nest site deep in the forest.
- One to three days after hatching, the young leave the nest and hide in nearby cover.
Synonyms
roost, eyrie
1. 1.1 A place where an insect or other animal breeds or shelters.
  巢，窝，穴
  an ants' nest
  一个蚁穴。
  Example sentencesExamples
  A typical army ant species lives in nests underground that are built out of the living bodies of its workers.
  EPS, polyurethane, and isocyanurate foam provide the ideal environment for an insect nest.
  Instead of finding something for her to eat, she found a nest of large insects of the predatory variety.
  Insect nests have guards who deter entry by both conspecific and allospecific intruders.
  They use their long claws to expose the insect's nests.
  Emigrations were induced by removing the roof slide from the old nest, forcing the ants to find a new home.
  Which of them will prefer football and which the ant nest, we'll have to wait and see.
  The caterpillar is taken inside the ant nest where it promptly turns carnivorous and starts devouring its hosts' eggs and young.
  In the chaos, the wasp slips unnoticed through the ant nest and preys on the unguarded caterpillar.
  The second ant emerging from the nest in search of food was much more likely to follow the trail left by the first ant than to go in search of the second food source.
  Leaf-cutting ants travel from their nests to trees and hack off bits of leaves, which they grip in their mandibles.
  The pupation is often completed within the nest of the ants.
  Eastern woodlands Aphaenogaster ants make twenty-inch-deep nests occupied by a few hundred workers.
  Colin Marlow, 56, was attacked by the insects after disturbing a nest on his smallholding.
  When the forest floor is blanketed in snow, the birds use their powerful bills to dig out ant nests from tree trunks and tree bases.
  Just as humans keep cows for their milk, certain ant species rear aphids and other insects in their nests and consume their secretions.
  Common wasps are social insects and live in nests of up to around 10,000 workers.
  And of course you can see green ant nests if you're walking through the bush throughout Australia, can't you?
  The majority of these insects build nests and therefore suitable nest sites must be maintained.
  In others, it may include completion of a rite of passage, such as getting buried up to your chin in an ant nest on your thirteenth birthday.
  Synonyms
  lair, den, drey, lodge, burrow, set, form
2. 1.2 A bowl-shaped object likened to a bird's nest.
  （与鸟巢相似的）碗状物体
  arrange in nests of lettuce leaves
  Example sentencesExamples
  Brian uncomfortably fluffed up a nest of sorts on the couch.
  They would sit at the bottom of the stands with their wares sitting in a nest of ice chipped from a big block, answering requests from the fans above them.
  Mrs Grey is, as I write, curled up on the floor of my study in a nest of patchwork pieces.
  One of my personal favourites is the pisto manchego, a smoky-tasting sautéed veggie dish served in a crisp nest of shredded potato.
  Fill meringue nests by first adding some chopped mango, then a dollop of passion fruit cream, finishing off with more chopped mango.
  Pull the baby runners back into the rows so they are not trodden on later, lifting the ripening berries up and carefully coddling each plant in a nest of straw.
  Colored eggs in a nest of moss await display on a tabletop or mantelpiece.
  Settled within a nest of blankets, the teenager found it very hard to get back into typing.
  The woman on the other hand had dark, auburn hair that was pulled back into a nest of braids on the back of her head.
  Mrs Jellyby, sitting in quite a nest of waste paper, drank coffee all the evening, and dictated at intervals to her eldest daughter.
  Maybe we could have made some raspberry vinaigrette, draped ourselves over a nest of baby greens, if you know what I mean.
  Afterwards, fuelled by chocolate Santa heads, I would sit in a nest of crumpled, torn wrapping paper, impatient for the new year to move quickly.
  The only person not in black is a child making a nest of stones near a cairn of rocks.
  As she waits with the horse, he takes his time finding his way around and she falls asleep on a nest of leaves near the horse.
  In the end I gave in and joined the two of them and then all three of us snoozed the rest of the day away, all snuggled together in a nest of warm wool.
  He was lying on his back in a nest of bedding on the floor of the central corridor, and the past was confusing.
  Beneath a nest of angel hair phyllo shreds is a layer of bizarre, bland melted cheese in a pool of honey syrup.
  My God, each box is a perfect reduced-impact nest of quality bubble wrap.
  When I make these for the real event I'm going to make bowls or nests for the apples to sit in so no one has to tear away spiky sugar.
  He had a nest of black hair and his skin was tanned and wrinkled, though not necessarily by age.
  It was topped with a nest of straw potatoes and drizzled with a mustard and yoghurt dip.
3. 1.3 A person's snug or secluded retreat or shelter.
  （人的）窝，窟；温床
  Example sentencesExamples
  No sooner are you snug in your new nest than you find that units on your floor are being used as a hotel, with people coming and going.
  His library became a nest, a retreat of perfect ideas perfectly poised.
  Make your bedroom a snug, safe nest, with a maximum of comfort and a minimum of distraction.
  Many of these hill stations began life as long ago as the 1820s, when early British settlers first sought nests in attractive locations.
  Synonyms
  hideaway, hiding place, hideout, retreat, shelter, refuge, snuggery, nook, den, haunt
2A place filled with or frequented by undesirable people or things.
窝点，巢穴
a nest of spies
一个特务窝点。
Example sentencesExamples
- Most charges focus on the Mafia's control of New York's waterfront, vast and beautiful, but for years a nest of corruption.
- They know what it means to be tiny spots on the map, remembered only if embroiled in a terrible conflict that turns the whole region into a nest of unrest.
- But now U.S. forces feels it's a nest of former regime loyalists and anti coalition fighters.
- All over the region, people are revisiting a nest of grievances.
- He is led off to execution, content to ‘die after a nest of dukes’.
- It took me another three seminars to realise that I'd accidentally fallen into a nest of revolutionary socialists.
- The Caribbean was a nest of pirates until cleaned up in the eighteenth century.
- He also discovers a nest of intrigue, decadence and a heathen willingness to murder people very casually if they get in your way.
- Welfare is now seen as a tool for training the impoverished, not a nest of dependence or a barrier to performance.
- I been working for Rorake for some time but because some of our men found a nest of vampires I had to go.
- I knew enough to see that the text was a nest of problems which competent scholars could go on investigating, but I had lost my path through the maze.
- It made me realise I'm living in a nest of privileged Tory vipers!
- This is as if the Spycatcher affair ten years ago hadn't showed MI5 to be a nest of hard right conspirators.
- Apparently there is something wrong with this - cleaning out a nest of public nuisances, expensive ones at that.
- Interesting, cos they are not portrayed as a tight, likeable team, but a nest of corruption and depraved power-to-commerce cynicism.
- He winces when a dozen members of Company B are mistaken for a nest of rebels one night and are targeted for a U.S. air strike.
- To wrap things up, he repeats that he sees the RA as a great opportunity, not as a nest of problems.
- This explains why he would hunt a nest of vampires alone.
- This development was seized on by right-wing commentators to argue that the American CP was nothing but a nest of spies.
- A ‘bien-pensant liberal’ in a nest of high Tories, she works all the harder to be a good person.
Synonyms
hotbed, den, breeding ground, cradle, seedbed, forcing house
3A set of similar objects of graduated sizes, made so that each smaller one fits into the next in size for storage.
（由大到小可依次套叠的）一套
a nest of tables
一个特务窝点。
Example sentencesExamples
- In the burial chamber, a nest of four golden shrines, each sitting within the other, are removed, to reveal a stone sarcophagus.
- Four months ago the desk gave birth to a nest of tables.
- I sit on a sofa that is part of an old three-piece suite around a nest of tables.
- Greenapple has produced a little nest of transparent glass tables, each made from a single sheet of glass.
- This consists of a nest of polished steel tubes that have been likened both to organ pipes and to the pine trunks of the Finnish forests.
- They have been flying out of her shop, which is why she has extended the range of Ercol reissues to include a settle, a dining table and a nest of tables.
Synonyms
cluster, set, group, assemblage

verbnestnɛst

1no object (of a bird or other animal) use or build a nest.
（鸟或其他动物）筑巢
the owls often nest in barns
猫头鹰经常把巢筑在谷仓中。
Example sentencesExamples
- The birds were nesting next to my bedroom window.
- The Dismal supports a hundred different bird species nesting within the refuge; another hundred are known to use the area.
- Prior to the sharp decline of Peregrines from the raptor's indigenous habitat, the birds nested mainly on steep cliffs, which seems like a very wild bird-like thing to do.
- Many birds are nesting earlier than they used to, while others are overwintering in this country instead of migrating to warmer parts.
- Mice nested in the wellington boots, and the tank-suit got a bad case of wet rot from a small hole in the roof.
- Neither the pet shop proprietor nor the new owner of the birds knew that the owls nest in underground burrows, which requires deep soil.
- Interesting water birds and several species of ducks and warblers nest there.
- It looked like a bird was nesting on the top of her head.
- There they grew to a modest size, birds nested in them and they appeared to cause no trouble.
- Areas scraped out for the embankments filled with water over the wet winter and birds are already nesting there.
- Wildlife experts are delighted with the record number of youngsters, particularly as it is only the second year the birds have nested in the county in living memory.
- My daughter then pointed out a tree to the right of the cricket green as you look towards the common, where two other similar birds were nesting.
- They said this work should have been delayed until after the birds had nested and young had left the nests.
- Mr Ritchies said it was known that three breeding pairs of barn owls nest in the area where it is proposed to put the turbines and red kite recently reintroduced in Wiltshire are seen on top the hill.
- This protected bird species had nested at the Baltic for many years and had to be moved to specially built nesting areas further down the river.
- Is it simply because the CLA exists in part to kill small creatures and they would like the moors free of disturbance so small birds can nest in peace?
- I decided that the birds could nest anywhere except in the stand of horse chestnut trees outside my back door.
- It added that the contractor had taken care to look and see if any birds were nesting in the trees before starting work.
- The birds of prey have nested at the site since 2001 and were the first to do so in the Lake District for 150 years.
- In 1982 the clock stopped when snow landed on it and the hands froze and some years later it stopped again when a bird nested in it.
2with object Fit (an object or objects) inside a larger one.
使（物体）套叠于更大的物体之中
the town is nested inside a large crater on the flanks of a volcano
这座城镇坐落在火山侧坡一处大的火山口内。
Example sentencesExamples
- The disk is nested inside an elliptical ring of older, cooler, redder stars, which was seen in previous Hubble and ground-based observations.
- And then a counter, all along the wall, only the cabinets below were all for wine - pull out drawers in which bottles were nested.
- The slender Caprivi Strip is nested between Zambia and Botswana and is a wet area of woodland blessed with a few rivers.
- Kettles were extremely durable and easily transported by nesting them inside one another.
- The final tip is to try not to nest tables inside of each other.
- Covering 320 square kilometers, it is nested in the southwestern corner of the country.
- The actual volcanic crater is one of the largest in the world as the town of Soufriere is neatly nested into the land based half, while the other portion lies under water and extends northward in the direction of Martinique's Soufiere.
- To break up the expanse of a not-so-Victorian double garage door, the couple came up with a design that looks like two structures, one nested inside the other.
- This experience is even more pronounced in the Double Torqued Ellipses, which consist of two curving palisades nested one inside the other.
- A hole was made in the bottom of the tube with a fine needle and the tube was nested inside a similar tube.
- I was explaining how you get more crockery in if you nest the little bowls inside the big bowls when I sensed that Mel was somehow not with me.
- Then I decided to nest Bonobo inside, and they got even clearer.
1. 2.1no object (of a set of objects) fit inside one another.
  （一套物件）逐个套叠
  Russian dolls that nest inside one another
  一套可依次套叠的俄罗斯套娃。
  Example sentencesExamples
  Still, only golf sets up its challenges in such a tidy row, a telescoping succession like that of Russian dolls nested one inside the other.
  Valves of this genus are commonly found nested inside each other.
  This pursuit of knowledge becomes a set of dolls nested within other dolls, the desire to fit and the desire to contrast plays into a choral performance on the theme of instability of all categories of life and knowing.
  With such technology parts can just be nested together and then joined on remote electronic command.
  On closer inspection, Iijima saw that these were hollow cylinders of carbon, and that each one contained several cylinders nested inside one another like Russian dolls.
  In the 28 January print issue of PRL, researchers calculate that a group of concentric nanotubes nested inside an outer set of tubes can slide back and forth a billion times every second.
  They say the result could explain why graphite lubricant - a spray of randomly oriented flakes - works so well, and why carbon nanotubes nested inside each other spin unexpectedly freely.
2. 2.2 (especially in computing and linguistics) place (an object or element) in a hierarchical arrangement, typically in a subordinate position.
  （尤作电脑和语言学用语）嵌套（物体，成分）
  Example sentencesExamples
  The same trait often appears in living things which are not believed to be closely related by evolution, and this occurs often enough to vitiate Eldredge's premise about nested hierarchies.
  You can perform conditional branching, parallel process flows, nested sub-processes, process joins, and other related features.
  You then navigate to the option which you want using the numeric keypad and go further down each nested menu.
  In fact, I argue that evolutionary processes are the only known processes which can generate such nested hierarchies.
  This can be accomplished by nesting elements under the parent element.
  The RANDOM statement of this procedure was used because the haploid random factor was nested within the series factor.
  Some of you may be asking, ‘if I can run one nested server, why not two or three?’
  Despite clustering in heterochromatin, Dasheng elements are not nested, suggesting their potential value as molecular markers for these marker-poor regions.
  A subquery occurs when a developer nests one SQL statement within another SQL statement.
  The images are called in as background images for two nested elements.
  The distribution of pattern elements is nested, such that species with less common elements such as rump patches also have more common elements such as wing bars.
  The enterprise edition of this software allows for companies to manage multiple, nested clusters of computing grids that are spread around an office complex or campus across multiple networks.
  This practice taxes the dial-up user's patience by wasting bandwidth on code forking, deeply nested tables, spacer pixels and other image hacks, and outdated or invalid tags and attributes.
  Elements are thus nested within broader elements, according to Ellis, and each element has its own time.
  When possessive relationships are nested, all but the last element are construct and all but the first are genitive: ‘head horse-of the-man-of’.
  These pages are in fact encrypted (with the public key of that rewebber) nested URLs again, which point to the next rewebber.
  Guess what, gene expression produces the same nested hierarchy of relatedness, with chimps our closest relatives, as we find for genes.
  HTML Tables can be nested within each other to produce a variety of different design layouts for websites.
  I just took a look at their home page, and they have tables nested five deep in some places.
  There's a growing belief that searching, rather than sorting through nested folders, is the next revolution in how people use computers.

Origin

Old English, of Germanic origin; related to Latin nidus, from the Indo-European bases of nether (meaning ‘down’) and sit.

词汇	nest
释义	Definition of nest in English: nest noun nɛstnɛst 1A structure or place made or chosen by a bird for laying eggs and sheltering its young. 鸟巢，鸟窝 two sparrows frantically building a nest as modifier a nest site Example sentencesExamples Columbids will re-use nests and will build nests on top of abandoned bird nests. The male feeds the female on the nest and helps her brood the young when they first hatch. Again the attraction is bird watching, especially pied shags feeding the young birds in their nests, great crested grebe and large numbers of paradise ducks. After one day in the nest, the young leap to the ground or water, often quite a long jump. While they are not highly territorial with their own species, they are aggressive toward other species and may drive native birds out of their nests. Once the young leave the nest, the parents continue to feed them for about a week. I've heard that when young birds leave the nest, parents will mob a lot more actively almost to show what is danger and what isn't. When they are raising young or robbing nests, Steller's Jays become very quiet and inconspicuous. Both birds work at nest building, but before this begins there is much play. The young leave the nest within a day of hatching and follow their parents out into the marsh. One to three days after hatching, the young leave the nest and hide in nearby cover. Brood parasitic birds lay eggs in the nests of host birds that raise the parasitic offspring to independence. But this year, the birds surprised conservationists by selecting a nest site deep in the forest. Last summer, Caitlin observed bald eaglets fledging from nests at two sites. The female stays on the nest and broods the young for the first week or so after they hatch. They said this work should have been delayed until after the birds had nested and young had left the nests. First, the flight trajectory will obviously depend on the way in which a bird will enter its nest site. This bird was feeding young in a nest perched in the eaves of one of the temple buildings. The young leave the nest soon after they hatch and find their own food immediately. All birds in the nest need protein, the kind that comes from any type of bug. Synonyms roost, eyrie nest box, nesting box North American birdhouse 1.1 A place where an insect or other animal breeds or shelters. 巢，窝，穴 an ants' nest 一个蚁穴。 Example sentencesExamples Eastern woodlands Aphaenogaster ants make twenty-inch-deep nests occupied by a few hundred workers. They use their long claws to expose the insect's nests. The pupation is often completed within the nest of the ants. EPS, polyurethane, and isocyanurate foam provide the ideal environment for an insect nest. A typical army ant species lives in nests underground that are built out of the living bodies of its workers. Just as humans keep cows for their milk, certain ant species rear aphids and other insects in their nests and consume their secretions. Instead of finding something for her to eat, she found a nest of large insects of the predatory variety. Emigrations were induced by removing the roof slide from the old nest, forcing the ants to find a new home. Which of them will prefer football and which the ant nest, we'll have to wait and see. Common wasps are social insects and live in nests of up to around 10,000 workers. And of course you can see green ant nests if you're walking through the bush throughout Australia, can't you? The caterpillar is taken inside the ant nest where it promptly turns carnivorous and starts devouring its hosts' eggs and young. In the chaos, the wasp slips unnoticed through the ant nest and preys on the unguarded caterpillar. When the forest floor is blanketed in snow, the birds use their powerful bills to dig out ant nests from tree trunks and tree bases. The majority of these insects build nests and therefore suitable nest sites must be maintained. Insect nests have guards who deter entry by both conspecific and allospecific intruders. The second ant emerging from the nest in search of food was much more likely to follow the trail left by the first ant than to go in search of the second food source. Colin Marlow, 56, was attacked by the insects after disturbing a nest on his smallholding. Leaf-cutting ants travel from their nests to trees and hack off bits of leaves, which they grip in their mandibles. In others, it may include completion of a rite of passage, such as getting buried up to your chin in an ant nest on your thirteenth birthday. Synonyms lair, den, drey, lodge, burrow, set, form 1.2 Something in the form of a bowl or layer, used to hold, protect, or support something. potato nests filled with okra 土豆盏盛羊角豆。 Example sentencesExamples The only person not in black is a child making a nest of stones near a cairn of rocks. Beneath a nest of angel hair phyllo shreds is a layer of bizarre, bland melted cheese in a pool of honey syrup. He had a nest of black hair and his skin was tanned and wrinkled, though not necessarily by age. My God, each box is a perfect reduced-impact nest of quality bubble wrap. He was lying on his back in a nest of bedding on the floor of the central corridor, and the past was confusing. They would sit at the bottom of the stands with their wares sitting in a nest of ice chipped from a big block, answering requests from the fans above them. Mrs Grey is, as I write, curled up on the floor of my study in a nest of patchwork pieces. Maybe we could have made some raspberry vinaigrette, draped ourselves over a nest of baby greens, if you know what I mean. Afterwards, fuelled by chocolate Santa heads, I would sit in a nest of crumpled, torn wrapping paper, impatient for the new year to move quickly. Colored eggs in a nest of moss await display on a tabletop or mantelpiece. Fill meringue nests by first adding some chopped mango, then a dollop of passion fruit cream, finishing off with more chopped mango. Mrs Jellyby, sitting in quite a nest of waste paper, drank coffee all the evening, and dictated at intervals to her eldest daughter. Pull the baby runners back into the rows so they are not trodden on later, lifting the ripening berries up and carefully coddling each plant in a nest of straw. When I make these for the real event I'm going to make bowls or nests for the apples to sit in so no one has to tear away spiky sugar. It was topped with a nest of straw potatoes and drizzled with a mustard and yoghurt dip. As she waits with the horse, he takes his time finding his way around and she falls asleep on a nest of leaves near the horse. Brian uncomfortably fluffed up a nest of sorts on the couch. The woman on the other hand had dark, auburn hair that was pulled back into a nest of braids on the back of her head. Settled within a nest of blankets, the teenager found it very hard to get back into typing. One of my personal favourites is the pisto manchego, a smoky-tasting sautéed veggie dish served in a crisp nest of shredded potato. In the end I gave in and joined the two of them and then all three of us snoozed the rest of the day away, all snuggled together in a nest of warm wool. 1.3 A person's snug or secluded retreat. （人的）窝，窟；温床 I'm off to my cosy nest Example sentencesExamples Many of these hill stations began life as long ago as the 1820s, when early British settlers first sought nests in attractive locations. His library became a nest, a retreat of perfect ideas perfectly poised. Make your bedroom a snug, safe nest, with a maximum of comfort and a minimum of distraction. No sooner are you snug in your new nest than you find that units on your floor are being used as a hotel, with people coming and going. Synonyms hideaway, hiding place, hideout, retreat, shelter, refuge, snuggery, nook, den, haunt informal hidey-hole 2A place filled with undesirable people, activities, or things. 窝点，巢穴 a nest of spies 一个特务窝点。 Example sentencesExamples Interesting, cos they are not portrayed as a tight, likeable team, but a nest of corruption and depraved power-to-commerce cynicism. This explains why he would hunt a nest of vampires alone. To wrap things up, he repeats that he sees the RA as a great opportunity, not as a nest of problems. Welfare is now seen as a tool for training the impoverished, not a nest of dependence or a barrier to performance. But now U.S. forces feels it's a nest of former regime loyalists and anti coalition fighters. The Caribbean was a nest of pirates until cleaned up in the eighteenth century. I been working for Rorake for some time but because some of our men found a nest of vampires I had to go. He winces when a dozen members of Company B are mistaken for a nest of rebels one night and are targeted for a U.S. air strike. I knew enough to see that the text was a nest of problems which competent scholars could go on investigating, but I had lost my path through the maze. This development was seized on by right-wing commentators to argue that the American CP was nothing but a nest of spies. He also discovers a nest of intrigue, decadence and a heathen willingness to murder people very casually if they get in your way. They know what it means to be tiny spots on the map, remembered only if embroiled in a terrible conflict that turns the whole region into a nest of unrest. He is led off to execution, content to ‘die after a nest of dukes’. It made me realise I'm living in a nest of privileged Tory vipers! Apparently there is something wrong with this - cleaning out a nest of public nuisances, expensive ones at that. It took me another three seminars to realise that I'd accidentally fallen into a nest of revolutionary socialists. A ‘bien-pensant liberal’ in a nest of high Tories, she works all the harder to be a good person. All over the region, people are revisiting a nest of grievances. This is as if the Spycatcher affair ten years ago hadn't showed MI5 to be a nest of hard right conspirators. Most charges focus on the Mafia's control of New York's waterfront, vast and beautiful, but for years a nest of corruption. Synonyms hotbed, den, breeding ground, cradle, seedbed, forcing house 3A set of similar objects of graduated sizes, made so that each smaller one fits into the next in size for storage. （由大到小可依次套叠的）一套 a nest of tables 一个特务窝点。 Example sentencesExamples This consists of a nest of polished steel tubes that have been likened both to organ pipes and to the pine trunks of the Finnish forests. I sit on a sofa that is part of an old three-piece suite around a nest of tables. In the burial chamber, a nest of four golden shrines, each sitting within the other, are removed, to reveal a stone sarcophagus. They have been flying out of her shop, which is why she has extended the range of Ercol reissues to include a settle, a dining table and a nest of tables. Greenapple has produced a little nest of transparent glass tables, each made from a single sheet of glass. Four months ago the desk gave birth to a nest of tables. Synonyms cluster, set, group, assemblage verb nɛstnɛst 1no object (of a bird or other animal) use or build a nest. （鸟或其他动物）筑巢 the owls often nest in barns 猫头鹰经常把巢筑在谷仓中。 Example sentencesExamples The birds were nesting next to my bedroom window. Is it simply because the CLA exists in part to kill small creatures and they would like the moors free of disturbance so small birds can nest in peace? In 1982 the clock stopped when snow landed on it and the hands froze and some years later it stopped again when a bird nested in it. It added that the contractor had taken care to look and see if any birds were nesting in the trees before starting work. The birds of prey have nested at the site since 2001 and were the first to do so in the Lake District for 150 years. Neither the pet shop proprietor nor the new owner of the birds knew that the owls nest in underground burrows, which requires deep soil. It looked like a bird was nesting on the top of her head. Mr Ritchies said it was known that three breeding pairs of barn owls nest in the area where it is proposed to put the turbines and red kite recently reintroduced in Wiltshire are seen on top the hill. My daughter then pointed out a tree to the right of the cricket green as you look towards the common, where two other similar birds were nesting. Prior to the sharp decline of Peregrines from the raptor's indigenous habitat, the birds nested mainly on steep cliffs, which seems like a very wild bird-like thing to do. Mice nested in the wellington boots, and the tank-suit got a bad case of wet rot from a small hole in the roof. Wildlife experts are delighted with the record number of youngsters, particularly as it is only the second year the birds have nested in the county in living memory. There they grew to a modest size, birds nested in them and they appeared to cause no trouble. Interesting water birds and several species of ducks and warblers nest there. Many birds are nesting earlier than they used to, while others are overwintering in this country instead of migrating to warmer parts. I decided that the birds could nest anywhere except in the stand of horse chestnut trees outside my back door. Areas scraped out for the embankments filled with water over the wet winter and birds are already nesting there. The Dismal supports a hundred different bird species nesting within the refuge; another hundred are known to use the area. This protected bird species had nested at the Baltic for many years and had to be moved to specially built nesting areas further down the river. They said this work should have been delayed until after the birds had nested and young had left the nests. 2with object Fit (an object or objects) inside a larger one. 使（物体）套叠于更大的物体之中 the town is nested inside a large crater on the flanks of a volcano 这座城镇坐落在火山侧坡一处大的火山口内。 Example sentencesExamples And then a counter, all along the wall, only the cabinets below were all for wine - pull out drawers in which bottles were nested. The slender Caprivi Strip is nested between Zambia and Botswana and is a wet area of woodland blessed with a few rivers. Covering 320 square kilometers, it is nested in the southwestern corner of the country. I was explaining how you get more crockery in if you nest the little bowls inside the big bowls when I sensed that Mel was somehow not with me. Then I decided to nest Bonobo inside, and they got even clearer. To break up the expanse of a not-so-Victorian double garage door, the couple came up with a design that looks like two structures, one nested inside the other. This experience is even more pronounced in the Double Torqued Ellipses, which consist of two curving palisades nested one inside the other. The final tip is to try not to nest tables inside of each other. A hole was made in the bottom of the tube with a fine needle and the tube was nested inside a similar tube. The actual volcanic crater is one of the largest in the world as the town of Soufriere is neatly nested into the land based half, while the other portion lies under water and extends northward in the direction of Martinique's Soufiere. The disk is nested inside an elliptical ring of older, cooler, redder stars, which was seen in previous Hubble and ground-based observations. Kettles were extremely durable and easily transported by nesting them inside one another. 2.1no object (of a set of objects) fit inside one another. （一套物件）逐个套叠 Russian dolls that nest inside one another 一套可依次套叠的俄罗斯套娃。 Example sentencesExamples Still, only golf sets up its challenges in such a tidy row, a telescoping succession like that of Russian dolls nested one inside the other. This pursuit of knowledge becomes a set of dolls nested within other dolls, the desire to fit and the desire to contrast plays into a choral performance on the theme of instability of all categories of life and knowing. In the 28 January print issue of PRL, researchers calculate that a group of concentric nanotubes nested inside an outer set of tubes can slide back and forth a billion times every second. With such technology parts can just be nested together and then joined on remote electronic command. On closer inspection, Iijima saw that these were hollow cylinders of carbon, and that each one contained several cylinders nested inside one another like Russian dolls. They say the result could explain why graphite lubricant - a spray of randomly oriented flakes - works so well, and why carbon nanotubes nested inside each other spin unexpectedly freely. Valves of this genus are commonly found nested inside each other. 2.2 (especially in computing and linguistics) place (an object or element) in a lower position in a hierarchy. （尤作电脑和语言学用语）嵌套（物体，成分） Example sentencesExamples You can perform conditional branching, parallel process flows, nested sub-processes, process joins, and other related features. The RANDOM statement of this procedure was used because the haploid random factor was nested within the series factor. This can be accomplished by nesting elements under the parent element. These pages are in fact encrypted (with the public key of that rewebber) nested URLs again, which point to the next rewebber. There's a growing belief that searching, rather than sorting through nested folders, is the next revolution in how people use computers. The distribution of pattern elements is nested, such that species with less common elements such as rump patches also have more common elements such as wing bars. This practice taxes the dial-up user's patience by wasting bandwidth on code forking, deeply nested tables, spacer pixels and other image hacks, and outdated or invalid tags and attributes. The same trait often appears in living things which are not believed to be closely related by evolution, and this occurs often enough to vitiate Eldredge's premise about nested hierarchies. Some of you may be asking, ‘if I can run one nested server, why not two or three?’ In fact, I argue that evolutionary processes are the only known processes which can generate such nested hierarchies. Elements are thus nested within broader elements, according to Ellis, and each element has its own time. The images are called in as background images for two nested elements. Guess what, gene expression produces the same nested hierarchy of relatedness, with chimps our closest relatives, as we find for genes. I just took a look at their home page, and they have tables nested five deep in some places. A subquery occurs when a developer nests one SQL statement within another SQL statement. HTML Tables can be nested within each other to produce a variety of different design layouts for websites. You then navigate to the option which you want using the numeric keypad and go further down each nested menu. The enterprise edition of this software allows for companies to manage multiple, nested clusters of computing grids that are spread around an office complex or campus across multiple networks. Despite clustering in heterochromatin, Dasheng elements are not nested, suggesting their potential value as molecular markers for these marker-poor regions. When possessive relationships are nested, all but the last element are construct and all but the first are genitive: ‘head horse-of the-man-of’. Derivatives nestful nounPlural nestfuls See a nestful of newly hatched wood ducks being told to take a 15-foot jump to join their mother in the lake below. Example sentencesExamples To charm wavering Tories, the Lib Dems have grabbed a nestful of shiny rightwing policies. nest-like adjective The first visible sign of sexual differentiation is the formation of a nest-like structure made of so-called Hülle cells. Example sentencesExamples The arrangements form repeating units called stem cell niches and provide nest-like microenvironments that house the adult stem cells and their immediate daughter cells. By adjusting the rate of withdrawal, rinsing, and drying, they could make the molecules bend back onto themselves like needle eyes, nooses, or even nest-like coils. She was, indeed, lying in a nest-like bed of red, blue, gold and green velvet pillows. On the forest floor is an absurd nest-like structure. Origin Old English, of Germanic origin; related to Latin nidus, from the Indo-European bases of nether (meaning 'down') and sit. A nest was originally a ‘sitting-down place’. The Old English word comes from the same ancient roots as nether (Old English) and sit (Old English). The related word nestle (Old English) first meant ‘build a nest’, and did not take on its modern meaning until the 16th century. Niche (early 17th century), ‘a shallow recess’ or ‘a comfortable or suitable position’, is another related word. Rhymes abreast, arrest, attest, beau geste, behest, bequest, best, blessed, blest, breast, Brest, Bucharest, Budapest, celeste, chest, contest, crest, digest, divest, guest, hest, infest, ingest, jest, lest, Midwest, molest, northwest, pest, prestressed, protest, quest, rest, self-addressed, self-confessed, self-possessed, southwest, suggest, test, Trieste, unaddressed, unexpressed, unimpressed, unpressed, unstressed, vest, west, wrest, zest Definition of nest in US English: nest nounnestnɛst 1A structure or place made or chosen by a bird for laying eggs and sheltering its young. 鸟巢，鸟窝 Example sentencesExamples The young leave the nest within a day of hatching and follow their parents out into the marsh. First, the flight trajectory will obviously depend on the way in which a bird will enter its nest site. Columbids will re-use nests and will build nests on top of abandoned bird nests. They said this work should have been delayed until after the birds had nested and young had left the nests. Once the young leave the nest, the parents continue to feed them for about a week. This bird was feeding young in a nest perched in the eaves of one of the temple buildings. The young leave the nest soon after they hatch and find their own food immediately. Brood parasitic birds lay eggs in the nests of host birds that raise the parasitic offspring to independence. When they are raising young or robbing nests, Steller's Jays become very quiet and inconspicuous. Again the attraction is bird watching, especially pied shags feeding the young birds in their nests, great crested grebe and large numbers of paradise ducks. After one day in the nest, the young leap to the ground or water, often quite a long jump. The male feeds the female on the nest and helps her brood the young when they first hatch. The female stays on the nest and broods the young for the first week or so after they hatch. Last summer, Caitlin observed bald eaglets fledging from nests at two sites. I've heard that when young birds leave the nest, parents will mob a lot more actively almost to show what is danger and what isn't. All birds in the nest need protein, the kind that comes from any type of bug. While they are not highly territorial with their own species, they are aggressive toward other species and may drive native birds out of their nests. Both birds work at nest building, but before this begins there is much play. But this year, the birds surprised conservationists by selecting a nest site deep in the forest. One to three days after hatching, the young leave the nest and hide in nearby cover. Synonyms roost, eyrie 1.1 A place where an insect or other animal breeds or shelters. 巢，窝，穴 an ants' nest 一个蚁穴。 Example sentencesExamples A typical army ant species lives in nests underground that are built out of the living bodies of its workers. EPS, polyurethane, and isocyanurate foam provide the ideal environment for an insect nest. Instead of finding something for her to eat, she found a nest of large insects of the predatory variety. Insect nests have guards who deter entry by both conspecific and allospecific intruders. They use their long claws to expose the insect's nests. Emigrations were induced by removing the roof slide from the old nest, forcing the ants to find a new home. Which of them will prefer football and which the ant nest, we'll have to wait and see. The caterpillar is taken inside the ant nest where it promptly turns carnivorous and starts devouring its hosts' eggs and young. In the chaos, the wasp slips unnoticed through the ant nest and preys on the unguarded caterpillar. The second ant emerging from the nest in search of food was much more likely to follow the trail left by the first ant than to go in search of the second food source. Leaf-cutting ants travel from their nests to trees and hack off bits of leaves, which they grip in their mandibles. The pupation is often completed within the nest of the ants. Eastern woodlands Aphaenogaster ants make twenty-inch-deep nests occupied by a few hundred workers. Colin Marlow, 56, was attacked by the insects after disturbing a nest on his smallholding. When the forest floor is blanketed in snow, the birds use their powerful bills to dig out ant nests from tree trunks and tree bases. Just as humans keep cows for their milk, certain ant species rear aphids and other insects in their nests and consume their secretions. Common wasps are social insects and live in nests of up to around 10,000 workers. And of course you can see green ant nests if you're walking through the bush throughout Australia, can't you? The majority of these insects build nests and therefore suitable nest sites must be maintained. In others, it may include completion of a rite of passage, such as getting buried up to your chin in an ant nest on your thirteenth birthday. Synonyms lair, den, drey, lodge, burrow, set, form 1.2 A bowl-shaped object likened to a bird's nest. （与鸟巢相似的）碗状物体 arrange in nests of lettuce leaves Example sentencesExamples Brian uncomfortably fluffed up a nest of sorts on the couch. They would sit at the bottom of the stands with their wares sitting in a nest of ice chipped from a big block, answering requests from the fans above them. Mrs Grey is, as I write, curled up on the floor of my study in a nest of patchwork pieces. One of my personal favourites is the pisto manchego, a smoky-tasting sautéed veggie dish served in a crisp nest of shredded potato. Fill meringue nests by first adding some chopped mango, then a dollop of passion fruit cream, finishing off with more chopped mango. Pull the baby runners back into the rows so they are not trodden on later, lifting the ripening berries up and carefully coddling each plant in a nest of straw. Colored eggs in a nest of moss await display on a tabletop or mantelpiece. Settled within a nest of blankets, the teenager found it very hard to get back into typing. The woman on the other hand had dark, auburn hair that was pulled back into a nest of braids on the back of her head. Mrs Jellyby, sitting in quite a nest of waste paper, drank coffee all the evening, and dictated at intervals to her eldest daughter. Maybe we could have made some raspberry vinaigrette, draped ourselves over a nest of baby greens, if you know what I mean. Afterwards, fuelled by chocolate Santa heads, I would sit in a nest of crumpled, torn wrapping paper, impatient for the new year to move quickly. The only person not in black is a child making a nest of stones near a cairn of rocks. As she waits with the horse, he takes his time finding his way around and she falls asleep on a nest of leaves near the horse. In the end I gave in and joined the two of them and then all three of us snoozed the rest of the day away, all snuggled together in a nest of warm wool. He was lying on his back in a nest of bedding on the floor of the central corridor, and the past was confusing. Beneath a nest of angel hair phyllo shreds is a layer of bizarre, bland melted cheese in a pool of honey syrup. My God, each box is a perfect reduced-impact nest of quality bubble wrap. When I make these for the real event I'm going to make bowls or nests for the apples to sit in so no one has to tear away spiky sugar. He had a nest of black hair and his skin was tanned and wrinkled, though not necessarily by age. It was topped with a nest of straw potatoes and drizzled with a mustard and yoghurt dip. 1.3 A person's snug or secluded retreat or shelter. （人的）窝，窟；温床 Example sentencesExamples No sooner are you snug in your new nest than you find that units on your floor are being used as a hotel, with people coming and going. His library became a nest, a retreat of perfect ideas perfectly poised. Make your bedroom a snug, safe nest, with a maximum of comfort and a minimum of distraction. Many of these hill stations began life as long ago as the 1820s, when early British settlers first sought nests in attractive locations. Synonyms hideaway, hiding place, hideout, retreat, shelter, refuge, snuggery, nook, den, haunt 2A place filled with or frequented by undesirable people or things. 窝点，巢穴 a nest of spies 一个特务窝点。 Example sentencesExamples Most charges focus on the Mafia's control of New York's waterfront, vast and beautiful, but for years a nest of corruption. They know what it means to be tiny spots on the map, remembered only if embroiled in a terrible conflict that turns the whole region into a nest of unrest. But now U.S. forces feels it's a nest of former regime loyalists and anti coalition fighters. All over the region, people are revisiting a nest of grievances. He is led off to execution, content to ‘die after a nest of dukes’. It took me another three seminars to realise that I'd accidentally fallen into a nest of revolutionary socialists. The Caribbean was a nest of pirates until cleaned up in the eighteenth century. He also discovers a nest of intrigue, decadence and a heathen willingness to murder people very casually if they get in your way. Welfare is now seen as a tool for training the impoverished, not a nest of dependence or a barrier to performance. I been working for Rorake for some time but because some of our men found a nest of vampires I had to go. I knew enough to see that the text was a nest of problems which competent scholars could go on investigating, but I had lost my path through the maze. It made me realise I'm living in a nest of privileged Tory vipers! This is as if the Spycatcher affair ten years ago hadn't showed MI5 to be a nest of hard right conspirators. Apparently there is something wrong with this - cleaning out a nest of public nuisances, expensive ones at that. Interesting, cos they are not portrayed as a tight, likeable team, but a nest of corruption and depraved power-to-commerce cynicism. He winces when a dozen members of Company B are mistaken for a nest of rebels one night and are targeted for a U.S. air strike. To wrap things up, he repeats that he sees the RA as a great opportunity, not as a nest of problems. This explains why he would hunt a nest of vampires alone. This development was seized on by right-wing commentators to argue that the American CP was nothing but a nest of spies. A ‘bien-pensant liberal’ in a nest of high Tories, she works all the harder to be a good person. Synonyms hotbed, den, breeding ground, cradle, seedbed, forcing house 3A set of similar objects of graduated sizes, made so that each smaller one fits into the next in size for storage. （由大到小可依次套叠的）一套 a nest of tables 一个特务窝点。 Example sentencesExamples In the burial chamber, a nest of four golden shrines, each sitting within the other, are removed, to reveal a stone sarcophagus. Four months ago the desk gave birth to a nest of tables. I sit on a sofa that is part of an old three-piece suite around a nest of tables. Greenapple has produced a little nest of transparent glass tables, each made from a single sheet of glass. This consists of a nest of polished steel tubes that have been likened both to organ pipes and to the pine trunks of the Finnish forests. They have been flying out of her shop, which is why she has extended the range of Ercol reissues to include a settle, a dining table and a nest of tables. Synonyms cluster, set, group, assemblage verbnestnɛst 1no object (of a bird or other animal) use or build a nest. （鸟或其他动物）筑巢 the owls often nest in barns 猫头鹰经常把巢筑在谷仓中。 Example sentencesExamples The birds were nesting next to my bedroom window. The Dismal supports a hundred different bird species nesting within the refuge; another hundred are known to use the area. Prior to the sharp decline of Peregrines from the raptor's indigenous habitat, the birds nested mainly on steep cliffs, which seems like a very wild bird-like thing to do. Many birds are nesting earlier than they used to, while others are overwintering in this country instead of migrating to warmer parts. Mice nested in the wellington boots, and the tank-suit got a bad case of wet rot from a small hole in the roof. Neither the pet shop proprietor nor the new owner of the birds knew that the owls nest in underground burrows, which requires deep soil. Interesting water birds and several species of ducks and warblers nest there. It looked like a bird was nesting on the top of her head. There they grew to a modest size, birds nested in them and they appeared to cause no trouble. Areas scraped out for the embankments filled with water over the wet winter and birds are already nesting there. Wildlife experts are delighted with the record number of youngsters, particularly as it is only the second year the birds have nested in the county in living memory. My daughter then pointed out a tree to the right of the cricket green as you look towards the common, where two other similar birds were nesting. They said this work should have been delayed until after the birds had nested and young had left the nests. Mr Ritchies said it was known that three breeding pairs of barn owls nest in the area where it is proposed to put the turbines and red kite recently reintroduced in Wiltshire are seen on top the hill. This protected bird species had nested at the Baltic for many years and had to be moved to specially built nesting areas further down the river. Is it simply because the CLA exists in part to kill small creatures and they would like the moors free of disturbance so small birds can nest in peace? I decided that the birds could nest anywhere except in the stand of horse chestnut trees outside my back door. It added that the contractor had taken care to look and see if any birds were nesting in the trees before starting work. The birds of prey have nested at the site since 2001 and were the first to do so in the Lake District for 150 years. In 1982 the clock stopped when snow landed on it and the hands froze and some years later it stopped again when a bird nested in it. 2with object Fit (an object or objects) inside a larger one. 使（物体）套叠于更大的物体之中 the town is nested inside a large crater on the flanks of a volcano 这座城镇坐落在火山侧坡一处大的火山口内。 Example sentencesExamples The disk is nested inside an elliptical ring of older, cooler, redder stars, which was seen in previous Hubble and ground-based observations. And then a counter, all along the wall, only the cabinets below were all for wine - pull out drawers in which bottles were nested. The slender Caprivi Strip is nested between Zambia and Botswana and is a wet area of woodland blessed with a few rivers. Kettles were extremely durable and easily transported by nesting them inside one another. The final tip is to try not to nest tables inside of each other. Covering 320 square kilometers, it is nested in the southwestern corner of the country. The actual volcanic crater is one of the largest in the world as the town of Soufriere is neatly nested into the land based half, while the other portion lies under water and extends northward in the direction of Martinique's Soufiere. To break up the expanse of a not-so-Victorian double garage door, the couple came up with a design that looks like two structures, one nested inside the other. This experience is even more pronounced in the Double Torqued Ellipses, which consist of two curving palisades nested one inside the other. A hole was made in the bottom of the tube with a fine needle and the tube was nested inside a similar tube. I was explaining how you get more crockery in if you nest the little bowls inside the big bowls when I sensed that Mel was somehow not with me. Then I decided to nest Bonobo inside, and they got even clearer. 2.1no object (of a set of objects) fit inside one another. （一套物件）逐个套叠 Russian dolls that nest inside one another 一套可依次套叠的俄罗斯套娃。 Example sentencesExamples Still, only golf sets up its challenges in such a tidy row, a telescoping succession like that of Russian dolls nested one inside the other. Valves of this genus are commonly found nested inside each other. This pursuit of knowledge becomes a set of dolls nested within other dolls, the desire to fit and the desire to contrast plays into a choral performance on the theme of instability of all categories of life and knowing. With such technology parts can just be nested together and then joined on remote electronic command. On closer inspection, Iijima saw that these were hollow cylinders of carbon, and that each one contained several cylinders nested inside one another like Russian dolls. In the 28 January print issue of PRL, researchers calculate that a group of concentric nanotubes nested inside an outer set of tubes can slide back and forth a billion times every second. They say the result could explain why graphite lubricant - a spray of randomly oriented flakes - works so well, and why carbon nanotubes nested inside each other spin unexpectedly freely. 2.2 (especially in computing and linguistics) place (an object or element) in a hierarchical arrangement, typically in a subordinate position. （尤作电脑和语言学用语）嵌套（物体，成分） Example sentencesExamples The same trait often appears in living things which are not believed to be closely related by evolution, and this occurs often enough to vitiate Eldredge's premise about nested hierarchies. You can perform conditional branching, parallel process flows, nested sub-processes, process joins, and other related features. You then navigate to the option which you want using the numeric keypad and go further down each nested menu. In fact, I argue that evolutionary processes are the only known processes which can generate such nested hierarchies. This can be accomplished by nesting elements under the parent element. The RANDOM statement of this procedure was used because the haploid random factor was nested within the series factor. Some of you may be asking, ‘if I can run one nested server, why not two or three?’ Despite clustering in heterochromatin, Dasheng elements are not nested, suggesting their potential value as molecular markers for these marker-poor regions. A subquery occurs when a developer nests one SQL statement within another SQL statement. The images are called in as background images for two nested elements. The distribution of pattern elements is nested, such that species with less common elements such as rump patches also have more common elements such as wing bars. The enterprise edition of this software allows for companies to manage multiple, nested clusters of computing grids that are spread around an office complex or campus across multiple networks. This practice taxes the dial-up user's patience by wasting bandwidth on code forking, deeply nested tables, spacer pixels and other image hacks, and outdated or invalid tags and attributes. Elements are thus nested within broader elements, according to Ellis, and each element has its own time. When possessive relationships are nested, all but the last element are construct and all but the first are genitive: ‘head horse-of the-man-of’. These pages are in fact encrypted (with the public key of that rewebber) nested URLs again, which point to the next rewebber. Guess what, gene expression produces the same nested hierarchy of relatedness, with chimps our closest relatives, as we find for genes. HTML Tables can be nested within each other to produce a variety of different design layouts for websites. I just took a look at their home page, and they have tables nested five deep in some places. There's a growing belief that searching, rather than sorting through nested folders, is the next revolution in how people use computers. Origin Old English, of Germanic origin; related to Latin nidus, from the Indo-European bases of nether (meaning ‘down’) and sit.
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