Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Bird's-nest

{

Bird’s′ nestˊ

, or

Bird’s-nest

}
,
Noun.
1.
The nest in which a bird lays eggs and hatches her young.
2.
(Cookery)
The nest of a small swallow (
Collocalia nidifica
and several allied species), of China and the neighboring countries, which is mixed with soups.
☞ The nests are found in caverns and fissures of cliffs on rocky coasts, and are composed in part of algæ. They are of the size of a goose egg, and in substance resemble isinglass. See Illust. under
Edible
.
3.
(Bot.)
An orchideous plant with matted roots, of the genus
Neottia
(
Neottia nidus-avis
).
Bird’s-nest pudding
,
a pudding containing apples whose cores have been replaced by sugar.
Yellow bird's nest
,
a plant, the
Monotropa hypopitys
.