eyrie
Americannoun
noun
-
the nest of an eagle or other bird of prey, built in a high inaccessible place
-
the brood of a bird of prey, esp an eagle
-
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
And my younger eyes loved the view from that eyrie.
From New York Times ● Sep. 14, 2011
From the moment I woke up for the first time in my eyrie to the day of my departure for England in December I had amassed enough experience to last me forever.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 9, 2011
After learning of the location of a nest occupied by a family of elusive harpy eagles, film-maker Fergus Beeley set up his own eyrie high in the canopy above the Orinoco rainforest of Venezuela .
From The Guardian ● Jul. 8, 2010
He kept his eye on the eyrie skating platform and obviously he couldn’t go with Doc to La Jolla.
From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck
So that peregrine chicks will think of their new man-made eyries as natural homes, they must be placed while they are still flightless�and thus most vulnerable to predators.
From Time Magazine Archive
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
Last year Cade placed 16 peregrines�offspring of birds trapped in Canada and Alaska and mated in captivity�in artificial eyries in Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Maryland.
From Time Magazine Archive
I'd climb to the eyries of eagle men Till the stars became a scroll; And pour right on, like the even sea, In the strength of a governed soul.
From Fugitive Poetry by Willis, Nathaniel Parker
Brief night succeeds the twilight; day dawn soon appears, and the hawks flash from their eyries in the Giralda, and the mule bells begin to jingle in the sunlit streets.
From The Story of Seville by Hartley, C. Gasquoine (Catherine Gasquoine)
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.
