HORNET'S NEST

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does hornet's nest mean? 

• HORNET'S NEST (noun)
  The noun HORNET'S NEST has 2 senses:

1. a highly contentious or hazardous situation

2. habitation for wasps or hornets

  Familiarity information: HORNET'S NEST used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HORNET'S NEST (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A highly contentious or hazardous situation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

hornet's nest; hornets' nest

Context example:

talk of invading Iraq stirred up a political hornets' nest

Hypernyms ("hornet's nest" is a kind of...):

situation (a complex or critical or unusual difficulty)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Habitation for wasps or hornets

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

hornet's nest; hornets' nest; wasp's nest; wasps' nest

Hypernyms ("hornet's nest" is a kind of...):

nidus (a nest in which spiders or insects deposit their eggs)

 Context examples 

Mother, said I, take the whole and let's be going, for I was sure the bolted door must have seemed suspicious and would bring the whole hornet's nest about our ears, though how thankful I was that I had bolted it, none could tell who had never met that terrible blind man.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)