empty nest

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noun

a household in which one or more parents live after the children have left home: Our only child just moved into her first apartment, so we have an empty nest.

a stage in a parent’s life after the children have left home.

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Words nearby empty nest

empty calories, empty cow, empty-handed, empty-headed, empty morph, empty nest, empty nester, empty-nest syndrome, Empty Quarter, empty set, empty suit

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use empty nest in a sentence

They have passed through life’s major transitions—like having kids or an empty nest—that often change people.
Why Older Couples Don't Need Marriage to Have Great Relationships|Francine Russo|September 19, 2021|Time
My mother raised me and my brother and sister until we were mostly empty nest, and then she went back to school and got a degree in gerontology to study aging and the needs and wants of the elderly.
Into the Head of Neil deGrasse Tyson|Joshua Eferighe|April 13, 2021|Ozy
He defied the atheism of communism and the empty religious practices of Putinism.
Remembering the Russian Priest Who Fought the Orthodox Church|Cathy Young|December 28, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Otherwise, we will be but celebrating an empty holiday, missing its true meaning altogether.
Jesus Wasn’t Born Rich. Think About It.|Gene Robinson|December 25, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Later schools empty out children, who race over to play games in the shade.
The Life and Hard Times Of The Family A Cuban Defector Left Behind|Brin-Jonathan Butler|December 19, 2014|DAILY BEAST
On Thursday, Russian bloggers published pictures of empty shelves in stores that once sold electric goods.
After His Disastrous Annual Press Conference, Putin Needs A Hug|Anna Nemtsova|December 18, 2014|DAILY BEAST
If they are in fact linked to North Korea, the threat may not be as empty as people think.
Kim Jong Un’s Kid Gloves Are Now Off|Gordon G. Chang|December 17, 2014|DAILY BEAST
A small book, bound in full purple calf, lay half hidden in a nest of fine tissue paper on the dressing-table.
Hilda Lessways|Arnold Bennett
Almost as soon as she had finished building her nest she had discovered a strange-looking egg there.
The Tale of Grandfather Mole|Arthur Scott Bailey
The grass had a delightful fragrance, like new-mown hay, and was neatly wound around the tunnel, like the inside of a bird's-nest.
Davy and The Goblin|Charles E. Carryl
Herein he found an empty stall that was dark enough not to be seen, and still afforded sufficient light to read in.
The Homesteader|Oscar Micheaux
And away she flew to her nest, leaving Grandfather Mole to talk to the air, if he wished.
The Tale of Grandfather Mole|Arthur Scott Bailey

Cultural definitions for empty nest

empty nest

The stage in a family's cycle when the children have grown up and left home to begin their own adult lives.

notes for empty nest

For parents, the empty nest sometimes results in midlife anxiety.

Other Idioms and Phrases with empty nest

empty nest

The home of parents whose children have grown up and moved out. For example, Now that they had an empty nest, Jim and Jane opened a bed-and-breakfast. This expression, alluding to a nest from which baby birds have flown, gave rise to such related ones as empty-nester, for a parent whose children had moved out, and empty-nest syndrome, for the state of mind of parents whose children had left. [c. 1970]