subs. (venery: American).—1. The female pudendum: also THE NEST IN THE BUSH: see MONOSYLLABLE. Hence, TO HAVE AN EGG IN THE NEST = to be pregnant; NEST-HIDING = illicit intercourse (attributed to Henry Ward Beecher); NEST-HUNTING = GROUSING (q.v.) or fornicating.
1782. G. A. STEVENS, Songs, Comic and Satyrical, ‘The Sentiment Song.’ Here’s the NEST in that bush, and the bird-nesting lover.
d. 1796. BURNS, The Court of Equity [FARMER, Merry Songs and Ballads (1897), iv., 284].
| And yet, ye loon, ye still protest, | |
| Ye never herried Maggy’s NEST. |
2. In pl. (thieves’).—See quot.
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, i., 231. List of patterer’s words. NESTS—Varieties.
3. (colloquial).—A place: as of residence; a centre: as of activity; a gang: as of thieves.
1595. SHAKESPEARE, Romeo and Juliet, v. 3. Come from that NEST of death.
1596. SPENSER, The Fairie Queene, IV., v., 32. They spide a little cottage, like some poore mans nest.
1604. SHAKESPEARE, Winter’s Tale, ii. 3. A NEST of traitors.
1728. BAILEY, English Dictionary, s.v. NEST … an Harbour for Thieves and Pirates.
1847. TENNYSON, The Princess, v., 416. We seem a NEST of traitors—none to trust.
Verb. (old).—To defecate.
1679. T. KIRKE, A Modern Account of Scotland, 6. The Houses mount seven or eight stories high, with many Families on one Floor, one Room being sufficient for all occasions, eating, drinking, sleeping, and shit—The most mannerly step but to the door, and NEST upon the Stairs.
See also FEATHER.
