1. 1. A container or shelter made by a bird out of twigs, grass, or other material to hold its eggs and young.
   2. A similar structure in which fish, insects, or other animals deposit eggs or keep their young.
   3. A place in which young are reared; a lair.
   4. 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. 1. A place or environment that fosters rapid growth or development, especially of something undesirable; a hotbed: a nest of criminal activity.
   2. Those who occupy or frequent such a place or environment.
4. 1. A set of objects of graduated size that can be stacked together, each fitting within the one immediately larger: a nest of tables.
   2. 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.

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.

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.]

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 nīdus. 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.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.