nestling
Americannoun
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a young bird not yet fledged
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( as modifier )
a nestling thrush
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any young person or animal
Etymology
Origin of nestling
Explanation
A nestling is a baby bird that can't fly yet and tends to hang out in its — yes, you guessed it — nest. Nestlings have to be fed and cared for by their parents. From the moment a baby bird hatches from its egg, it is a nestling — and it remains a nestling until it learns to fly, when it officially becomes a fledgling. Some people fondly refer to young children as nestlings too. This noun adds the diminutive ending -ling (as in gosling for baby goose) to nest.
Vocabulary lists containing nestling
Growth, Development and Reproduction of Organisms - Middle School
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Growth, Development and Reproduction of Organisms - Introductory
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Growth, Development and Reproduction of Organisms - High School
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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.
We explore historic and natural sights in Lisbon and nearby, including the breathtaking hills nestling the palaces of Sintra.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025
Many years ago, her cat had escaped and came back with a hummingbird nestling.
From Salon • Jan. 9, 2025
You’ll see egrets and herons in the tidal wetlands of the Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge and perhaps even snowy plovers nestling in the dunes or pecking for insects in the wet sand.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 16, 2024
But Xist's nestling into the extra X chromosome generates odd combinations of lncRNA, proteins that bind to it, other proteins that bind to those proteins, and DNA some of those proteins cling to.
From Science Daily • Feb. 1, 2024
The fierce nestling clenches her talons on air.
From "On the Far Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
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.
