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
-
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
Iman would say her husband, secluded in his rooftop eyrie overlooking downtown New York, was always working, that he read the British papers, avidly kept up with the nation’s political news.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 16, 2016
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
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
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
From their eyries in the towering rock bastions the brown eagles swooped down as though to rend us, uttering wild and menacing cries.
From Lodges in the Wilderness by W. C. (William Charles) Scully
The birds went back to their eyries, and the troubled water was still.
From King Alfred's Viking A Story of the First English Fleet by Charles W. (Charles Watts) Whistler
We only noticed one small colony in the Sierra de Gredos; and of its six or eight pairs, our beaters, who passed close below their eyries, declared that two were of the black species.
From Wild Spain (Espa?a agreste) Records of Sport with Rifle, Rod, and Gun, Natural History Exploration by Walter J. Buck
He felt that within him which rose up gigantic from the earth, and towered into eyries of space, from whence that morning star seemed like a dewdrop glittering low down upon the earth.
From The Worshipper of the Image by Richard Le Gallienne
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