Word.ws English Dictionary

crow's nest

/ˈkɹəʊz.nɛst/

crow's nest noun: a small open-top shelter, originally a cask, on the top of the foremast, large enough to accommodate a lookout. It was used by whalers to watch for a blow (spout), or in icebound waters to seek a channel.

Noun

crow's nest (plural crow's nests)

  1. A small open-top shelter, originally a cask, on the top of the foremast, large enough to accommodate a lookout. It was used by whalers to watch for a blow (spout), or in icebound waters to seek a channel.
    • When Captain Sleet in person stood his mast-head in this crow’s-nest of his, he tells us that he always had a rifle with him (also fixed in the rack), together with a powder flask and shot, for the purpose of popping off the stray narwhales, or vagrant sea unicorns infesting those waters; […].1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 35, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC

Forms of crow's nest

pluralcrow's nests
alternative formcrow's-nest
alternative formcrowsnest

Origin of crow's nest

From the habit of crows building nests high up in trees.

Words formed from crow's nest

Questions about crow's nest

What does crow's nest mean?
Crow's nest means a small open-top shelter, originally a cask, on the top of the foremast, large enough to accommodate a lookout. It was used by whalers to watch for a blow (spout), or in icebound waters to seek a channel.
What part of speech is crow's nest?
Crow's nest is a noun.
How do you pronounce crow's nest?
Crow's nest is pronounced /ˈkɹəʊz.nɛst/.
What is the plural of crow's nest?
The plural of crow's nest is crow's nests.

Words near crow's nest in the dictionary

  1. crow's ash
  2. crow's bill
  3. crow's bills
  4. crow's feet
  5. crow's foot
  6. crow's nest
  7. crow's nests
  8. crow's-feet
  9. crow's-foot
  10. crow's-nest
  11. crow's-nests

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: crow's nest (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-crow's nest.wav.

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