| 释义 |
▪ I. ˈnesting, vbl. n.
[f. nest v. + -ing1.]
1. a. The action, or manner, of constructing a nest or nests.
1767G. White Selborne xii, From the colour, shape, size, and manner of nesting, I make no doubt..the species is nondescript. 1864–5Wood Homes without H. xxxi. (1868) 623 The bird is gregarious in its nesting, the rocky ledges being crowded with the rude nests. 1874Coues Birds N.W. 50 An..account of the nesting and eggs of this species.
b. attrib., as nesting-burrow, nesting-call, nesting-cover, nesting-ground, nesting-habit, nesting-hole, nesting-place, nesting-season, nesting-site, nesting-song, nesting-station, nesting-territory, nesting-time, nesting-tree; nesting-box = nest-box 2. Also fig.
1873Young Englishwoman May 225/1 The space beneath the *nesting-boxes should be partitioned from the rest of the cage. 1895W. Schlich Man. Forestry IV. ii. 148 The wooden nesting-boxes..are made out of half-inch boards, and tarred. 1933H. Nicolson Diary 5 Jan. (1966) 131 Up Broadway and Madison to the hotel. Nesting-boxes. 1938Brit. Birds XXXI. 331 Noticing..a Blue Tit..entering about dusk a nesting box..I began watching. 1970New Yorker 8 Aug. 56/3 We're building nesting boxes and doing everything else we can think of to encourage the kestrels.
1937Brit. Birds XXX. 237 On Rona the thrift-grown banks..are riddled with *nesting burrows of Leach's Petrels. 1959Van Tyne & Berger Fundamentals of Ornithology x. 277 The Turquoise-browed Motmot..may dig nesting burrows over 5 feet long.
1924J. A. Thomson Sci. Old & New xxi. 116 The selection is marked by the bird's remaining near the chosen spot and giving the *nesting-call to the mate.
1936Brit. Birds XXIX. 28 Elstree reservoir..is about 80 acres in extent with relatively little suitable *nesting-cover for the Great Crested Grebe.
1921Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 27 Oct. 10/3 The purchasing of suitable marsh and swamp lands to furnish *nesting grounds for the birds in the North. 1961O. L. Austin Birds of World (1962) 38/2 They [sc. diving petrels]..are nocturnal on the nesting grounds.
1936Brit. Birds XXX. 98 The average size of the broods of the Swallow..and other questions connected with their *nesting-habits..bring the enquiry to a close. 1964Oxf. Bk. Birds 102/2 They [sc. rock doves] build on ledges in caves and crevices and have..nesting habits like other doves.
1936Brit. Birds XXIX. 379 The height above ground of the *nesting-hole varies according to the choice there is of decayed wood. 1961O. L. Austin Birds of World (1962) 173/2 Guatemalans have always claimed that the Quetzal selects a nesting hole with two entrances... Recent studies have shown this to be pure legend.
1611Florio, Nidamento, a *nesting-place. 1774G. White in Phil. Trans. LXV. 270 They are fearless while haunting their nesting places. 1861L. L. Noble Icebergs 180 As wild-looking as the nesting-place of sea-fowl.
1879Jefferies Wild Life in S. Co. 338 In the *nesting season snakes are the terror of those birds that build in low bushes.
1888Zoologist XIII. 18 Not finally deciding on a *nesting-site until May 17th.
1879E. Arnold Lt. Asia i. xiii, All the jungle laughed with *nesting-songs.
1882Proc. Berw. Nat. Club IX. 506 They..cling to their *nesting stations.
1923J. S. Huxley Ess. Biologist vii. 291 The sense of being a trespasser so often shown by a bird that has ventured upon the *nesting-territory of another. 1959Van Tyne & Berger Fundamentals of Ornithology x. 268 Small nesting territories of colonial and some non-colonial birds—a small area round the actual nest. 1974Country Life 14 Feb. 285/3 Fulmars..lay claim to sites, even when there is frost... Ravens, too, patrol a nesting territory.
1600Surflet Countrie Farme vii. xx. 836 The heron⁓shewes haunting the same in *nesting time, would forsake it. 1883Harper's Mag. Dec. 101/1 In the warm weeks of June come the sterner duties, the nesting-time.
1935Brit. Birds XXVIII. 347 Return to *nesting-trees.—First seen on February 18th.
2. (The making of) a nested arrangement (see nested ppl. a. 2).
1957D. D. McCracken Digital Computer Programming xvii. 207 The truncated series is factored: ex = 1 + x/1! + x2/2! + x3/3! + x4/4! + x5/5! + x6/6! = 1 + x[1 + ½x[1 + 1/3x[1 + 1/4x[1 + 1/5x[1 + 1/6x]]]]]. The factored series is then evaluated ‘from the inside out’, which is also called nesting. 1958C. F. Hockett Course in Mod. Linguistics xxi. 189 The presence of certain attributive constructions in the nesting precludes the occurrence of certain others at a more inclusive level: we can say this fresh milk, but not fresh this milk. 1963[see nested ppl. a. 2 b]. 1965Language XLI. 71 Internal layering and multiple nesting characterize many syntagmemes. 1966Y. Bar-Hillel in Automatic Transl. of Lang. (NATO Summer School, Venice 1962) 11 The same degree of nesting is also assigned to the terminal expression as analysed by this tree. 1967Klerer & Korn Digital Computer User's Handbk. i. iii. 75 Another technique to reduce operations is by nesting when increasing powers of a variable are to be calculated. For example, the expression AX3 + BX2 + CX + D may be written in nested form as ((B + Ax)x + C)x + D which requires less arithmetic. 1972Hartmann & Stork Dict. of Lang. & Linguistics 150/2 Nesting, the embedding of a phrase or clause within an endocentric phrase to modify its head word.
▪ II. ˈnesting, ppl. a.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
1. Making or occupying a nest.
1658Rowland tr. Moufet's Theat. Ins. 930 The Bombylus, greatest of the nesting Insects, is bigger than either of the Sirens. 1797Holcroft tr. Stolberg's Trav. (ed. 2) III. lxxxviii. 467 There is a wall, which has cavities for nesting doves. 1851Mrs. Browning Casa Guidi Wind. 29 Insecure, The nesting swallows fly off. 1895Atlantic Monthly July 63 The nesting-bird was one of the group.
2. Of a table, chair, etc.: that forms part of a set of similar articles which can be fitted into one another (cf. nest n. 6).
Passing into the vbl. n.
1934H. Read Art & Industry ii. 89 Another chair designed by Alvar Aalto. The plywood process combined with tubular steel to make nesting-chairs. 1934A. Woollcott While Rome Burns 29 He [sc. Harpo, a French poodle] was gracious, for instance, toward Erich Maria Remarque, a dachshund who fitted under him like a nesting table. 1958J. Cannan And be a Villain iii. 57 In the meagre lounge, half-heartedly modernized with nesting chairs and formica-topped tables. 1959N. Mailer Advts. for Myself (1961) 436 Hand-worked nesting tables. 1961G. Millerson Technique Telev. Production viii. 150 (caption) Nesting sets may be placed one within the other, the inner one being struck to reveal the outer. 1969Guardian 26 Sept. 11/7 Nesting tables..5 gns. each or {pstlg}15. 10s. per set of three. 1970Washington Post 30 Sept. B8/5 (Advt.), Front-zipped cotton luggage... Six nesting sizes. 1975Harpers & Queen May 145/2 Gladstone bags in woven rush; 3 nesting sizes. |