NESTLING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does nestling mean? 

• NESTLING (noun)
  The noun NESTLING has 2 senses:

1. young bird not yet fledged

2. a young person of either sex

  Familiarity information: NESTLING used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• NESTLING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Young bird not yet fledged

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

baby bird; nestling

Hypernyms ("nestling" is a kind of...):

young bird (a bird that is still young)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A young person of either sex

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

child; fry; kid; minor; nestling; nipper; shaver; small fry; tiddler; tike; tyke; youngster

Context example:

'tiddler' is a British term for youngster

Hypernyms ("nestling" is a kind of...):

juvenile; juvenile person (a young person, not fully developed)

Meronyms (parts of "nestling"):

child's body (the body of a human child)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "nestling"):

peanut (a young child who is small for his age)

street child; waif (a homeless child especially one forsaken or orphaned)

urchin (poor and often mischievous city child)

bambino; toddler; tot; yearling (a young child)

sprog (a child)

silly (a word used for misbehaving children)

kindergartener; kindergartner; preschooler (a child who attends a preschool or kindergarten)

poster child (a child afflicted by some disease or deformity whose picture is used on posters to raise money for charitable purposes)

picaninny; piccaninny; pickaninny ((ethnic slur) offensive term for a Black child)

bairn (a child: son or daughter)

orphan (a child who has lost both parents)

kiddie; kiddy (informal term for a young child)

imp; monkey; rapscallion; rascal; scalawag; scallywag; scamp (one who is playfully mischievous)

foster-child; foster child; fosterling (a child who is raised by foster parents)

child prodigy; infant prodigy; wonder child (a prodigy whose talents are recognized at an early age)

changeling (a child secretly exchanged for another in infancy)

buster (a robust child)

 Context examples 

"A position!" she cried, betraying the gladness of her surprise in all her body, nestling closer to him, pressing his hand, smiling.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

On the Gascon side of the great mountains there had been running streams, meadows, forests, and little nestling villages.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Don't talk about being poor, and working hard!” said Dora, nestling closer to me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Gentle, soft dream, nestling in my arms now, you will fly, too, as your sisters have all fled before you: but kiss me before you go—embrace me, Jane.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The other hunter, Latimer, a lean, Yankee-looking fellow with shrewd, narrow-slitted eyes, held otherwise, held that the seal pup was born on the land for no other reason than that it could not swim, that its mother was compelled to teach it to swim as birds were compelled to teach their nestlings how to fly.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

She was sobbing and nestling close against him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

But seeing me, she called me her dear Davy, her own boy! and coming half across the room to meet me, kneeled down upon the ground and kissed me, and laid my head down on her bosom near the little creature that was nestling there, and put its hand to my lips.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Bessie had been down into the kitchen, and she brought up with her a tart on a certain brightly painted china plate, whose bird of paradise, nestling in a wreath of convolvuli and rosebuds, had been wont to stir in me a most enthusiastic sense of admiration; and which plate I had often petitioned to be allowed to take in my hand in order to examine it more closely, but had always hitherto been deemed unworthy of such a privilege.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Twice he bent and kissed her, and each time her lips met his shyly and her body made its happy, nestling movement.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I remember how the solemn feeling with which at length I turned my eyes away, yielded to the sensation of gratitude and rest which the sight of the white-curtained bed—and how much more the lying softly down upon it, nestling in the snow-white sheets!—inspired.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)