eyrie
Americannoun
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eyries
plural
noun
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the nest of an eagle or other bird of prey, built in a high inaccessible place
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the brood of a bird of prey, esp an eagle
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any high isolated position or place
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of eyrie
C16: from Medieval Latin airea, from Latin ārea open field, hence nest
Explanation
An eyrie is the nest of a bird of prey such as an eagle or hawk. Eyries are perched high, in tall trees or on cliffs. You've probably seen a bird's nest or two, but you may not have seen an eyrie. That's because eyries are very high up. Some eyries are in enormous trees, while others are on the sides of cliffs and mountains. This keeps the bird's nest very safe from other animals, but the birds who make eyries are dangerous: hunting birds such as eagles, falcons, and hawks. After killing and eating its prey, an eagle will return to its eyrie.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
That changed in April 2023 when unknowing construction workers unceremoniously removed a disintegrating Pinky from its eyrie.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
From this hilltop eyrie in Bel Air, LA’s plushest neighbourhood, other estates belonging to the likes of Jennifer Aniston and Elon Musk look puny in comparison.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 4, 2018
In his eyrie on the sixth floor, Crockett tells me that casting for a musical takes about six weeks.
From The Guardian ● May 21, 2013
And my younger eyes loved the view from that eyrie.
From New York Times ● Sep. 14, 2011
Indeed, whatever being uttered that fearful shriek could not soon repeat it: not the widest-winged condor on the Andes could, twice in succession, send out such a yell from the cloud shrouding his eyrie.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
And while most of the California coast was sprouting pink motels, filling stations, and the cantilevered eyries of the rich, this stretch of Monterey County kept its rugged beauty.
From Time Magazine Archive
They saw that he was departing, so they sank again to their eyries, and congratulated themselves on having driven him away.
From Hoof and Claw by Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts
Long years and rain and sunlight have made these castellated eyries one with their native stone.
From Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, First Series by Horatio Robert Forbes Brown
They might have to contemplate the devastation of their fields, and their farms burning, from their eyries, but they knew that their persons were safe.
From Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould
Three of these eyries were situate on abrupt, detached stacks of rock, so easily accessible that we almost "walked" into them.
From Wild Spain (Espa?a agreste) Records of Sport with Rifle, Rod, and Gun, Natural History Exploration by Walter J. Buck
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
