empty nest

American  

noun

1. 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.

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

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empty nest Cultural  

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

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empty nest Idioms  

1. 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]

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Discover More

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

Etymology

Origin of empty nest

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

He and his wife expected to have an empty nest by now.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 5, 2026

A young bald eagle has taken flight, leaving an empty nest in Big Bear Valley, California.

From BBC • Jun. 30, 2026

She was working 12 hours a day, going through a host of changes: Her marriage was collapsing, she was about to have an empty nest and was about to turn 40.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 29, 2026

He was angry that I even considered uprooting our empty nest for such a pursuit.

From Salon • Nov. 3, 2024

A green mamba had slid down from a branch of the tree and was hovering over an empty nest in the shallows.

From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo