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nesting

   Also found in: Medical, Legal, Idioms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.01 sec.
nest  (nst)
n.
1.
a. A container or shelter made by a bird out of twigs, grass, or other material to hold its eggs and young.
b. A similar structure in which fish, insects, or other animals deposit eggs or keep their young.
c. A place in which young are reared; a lair.
d. A number of insects, birds, or other animals occupying such a place: a nest of hornets.
2. A place affording snug refuge or lodging; a home.
3.
a. A place or environment that fosters rapid growth or development, especially of something undesirable; a hotbed: a nest of criminal activity.
b. Those who occupy or frequent such a place or environment.
4.
a. A set of objects of graduated size that can be stacked together, each fitting within the one immediately larger: a nest of tables.
b. A cluster of similar things.
5. Computer Science A set of data contained sequentially within another.
6. A group of weapons in a prepared position: a machine-gun nest.
v. nest·ed, nest·ing, nests
v.intr.
1. To build or occupy a nest.
2. To create and settle into a warm and secure refuge.
3. To hunt for birds' nests, especially in order to collect the eggs.
4. To fit together in a stack.
v.tr.
1. To place in or as if in a nest.
2. To put snugly together or inside one another: to nest boxes.

[Middle English, from Old English; see sed- in Indo-European roots.]
Word History: Nest is an ancient word, *nizdos in Indo-European, composed of the prefix *ni- "down," plus a form of the verbal root *sed-, "to sit," followed by a suffix used to form nouns, *-os. Thus a *ni-zd-os literally means "(place where the bird) sits down." In Germanic, an old zd became st. Thus *nizdos became *nistaz, which further changed in Old English to nest. Latin also inherited the word *nizdos from Indo-European, where it eventually changed to ndus. This word has been borrowed into English as a scientific term. The prefix *ni- survives elsewhere in English, too, in the words beneath and nether.

nesting [ˈnɛstɪŋ]
n
(Psychology) the tendency to arrange one's immediate surroundings, such as a work station, to create a place where one feels secure, comfortable, or in control
Translations
nesting [ˈnestɪŋ]
A. N (Orn) → nidificación f, anidación f
B. CPD nesting box N (for hen) → nidal m, ponedero m; (for wild bird) → caja f anidadera
nesting season Népoca f de puesta, época f de nidificación, época f de anidación
nesting site Nzona f de nidificación, zona f de anidación
nesting:
nesting box
nNistkasten m
nesting instinct
n (lit, fig)Nistinstinkt mor -trieb m


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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
On the slope of the right-hand hill white houses with brown roofs were settled, like nesting sea-birds, and at intervals cypresses striped the hill with black bars.
"I heard of a man, once, who invaded the nesting grounds of wild geese," Maud said.
For aviaries, I like them not, except they be of that largeness as they may be turfed, and have living plants and bushes set in them; that the birds may have more scope, and natural nesting, and that no foulness appear in the floor of the aviary.
 
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