Meaning

6 senses
  1. (intransitive)To build or settle into a nest.

    nisten, einnisten

    гнездова́тьсяgnezdovátʹsja, гнезди́тьсяgnezdítʹsja

  2. (intransitive)To settle into a home.

    We loved the new house and were nesting there in two days!

    селитисяselytysja

  3. (intransitive)To successively neatly fit inside another.

    I bought a set of nesting mixing bowls for my mother.

    fit together or fit inside

  4. (transitive)To place in, or as if in, a nest.

    inhabit a nest, usually after building

  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").

    gather nests

Examples

222 sentences
  1. The bird is in its nest.

    Пташка у своєму гнізді. — deniko

    ruПтица в гнезде. — Lenin_1917

    deDer Vogel ist in seinem Nest. — Tamy

  2. Birds build nests.

    Птахи в'ють гнізда. — deniko

    ruПтицы вьют гнезда. — afyodor

    deVögel bauen Nester. — al_ex_an_der

  3. Birds always return to their nests.

    ruПтицы всегда возвращаются в своё гнездо. — marafon

  4. She carefully watched the bird in the nest.

  5. We found a bird's nest in our chimney.

    deWir fanden ein Vogelnest in unserem Kamin. — raggione

Translations

9 languages
Українська
By meaning 1
to settle into a home:
Русский
By meaning 1
to build or settle into a nest:
Deutsch
By meaning 1
to build or settle into a nest:

Origin

From Middle English nesten, nisten, from Old English nistan, nistian, from Proto-West Germ

From Middle English nesten, nisten, from Old English nistan, nistian, from Proto-West Germanic *nistijan (“to nest, build a nest”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian näästje (“to nest”), Dutch nesten (“to nest”), German Low German nüsten (“to nest”), German nisten (“to nest”).

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

nests, nesting, nested, nested
Base formnest · to nest
3rd person singularnests
Present participlenesting
Past simplenested
Past participlenested

regular · Lesson

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theynest
he, she, itnests

Past simpleLesson

all personsnested

Present perfectLesson

I, you, we, theyhave nested
he, she, ithas nested

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill nest

Synonyms

5 synonyms
Close in meaning

Word family

4 related words

See also

neighbours in the dictionary

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

nest — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto