Meaning

noun a structure in which animals lay eggs or give birth to their young

noun a kind of gun emplacement

noun a cosy or secluded retreat

originFrom Middle English nest, nist, nyst, from Old English nest, from Proto-West Germanic *nest, from Proto-Germanic *nestą, from Proto-Indo-European *nisdós (“nest”), literally "where [the bird] sits down", a compound of *ni (“down”) (whence also English nether) + the zero-grade of the root *sed- (“to sit”) (whence also English sit).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0