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Glite Dictionary
nestful

nestful

6.9
A number of eggs or baby birds in one nest
  • noun
  • /ˈnɛstfəl/
translation icon : nido
  • She carefully counted the nestful of ducklings following their mother across the pond.

Examples

  • The mother bird returned to her nest with a nestful of hatchlings, chirping for food.

  • You look like two birds who have hatched out a nestful of snakes.

    Solomon and Sheba (1959)

  • Well, if single-handedly vanquishing the enemy and slaughtering a whole nestful of termites makes someone a hero, yes, I am.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • Furthermore, when he reached the Heronry, he would face not a nestful of baby birds, whom he could gobble up one by one, but a pair of adult blue herons capable of destroying any animal threatening their nest.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • After days of waiting, the little boy discovered a nestful of robin eggs hidden in the tree.

Synonyms

brood
vsnestful
26 3.9

A group of young birds or animals cared for by a parent

refers only to how many eggs or young are in one nest
clutch
vsnestful
4 5.8

A group of eggs or young birds hatched at the same time

refers specifically to the count inside a single nest

How Many

brood
26 3.9
nestful
6.9
clutch
4 5.8
one
1.0

Surface Forms

nestful singular
nestfuls plural

Morphology

nestful = nest (transparent) = nest + ful

Formed by the noun 'nest' plus the productive suffix '-ful' meaning 'as much as fills a nest', a directly derivable quantifying noun.

Etymology

Nestful is made of nest and ful, where ful means 'full of' and works the same way as in cupful or handful. So a nestful is a nest 'full of' eggs or baby birds, meaning the number in one nest.