See empty nest in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "From birds whose offspring leave the nest when they reach maturity.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "empty nests",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "empty nest (plural empty nests)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "80 20",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "83 17",
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{
"_dis": "85 15",
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{
"_dis": "85 15",
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},
{
"_dis": "78 22",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "78 22",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with German translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "72 28",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Mandarin translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "80 20",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Polish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "77 23",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Portuguese translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
71,
81
]
],
"ref": "2011, Celia Dodd, The Empty Nest: Your Changing Family, Your New Direction, Hachette UK, →ISBN:",
"text": "One woman with a full-on and demanding career e-mailed me to say ‘This empty nest thing is no joke. I didn't realise it would hit me so hard. It is day three of my daughter being gone and I have to resist the urge to weep every time I go past her room.’",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
8,
18
]
],
"ref": "2014, Lisa O. Engelhardt, Empty Nest Therapy, Open Road Media, →ISBN:",
"text": "Yet an “empty nest” can cause confusing emotions for parents. While this juncture can bring on sadness and loneliness, it can also signal newfound freedom and fulfillment.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
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22,
32
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223,
233
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],
"ref": "2025 August 10, Don Riddell, “Now that my kids are off to college, what’s this empty nester dad to do?”, in CNN:",
"text": "As Dodd wrote in ‘The Empty Nest,’ “To me, it was glaringly obvious that parting from a child who has been the centre of your life for twenty-odd years is a really big deal. Yet while new parents are bombarded with advice, empty nest parents are left to muddle through what is arguably the most challenging phase of parenting.”",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A home or a family where the children have grown up and moved away."
],
"id": "en-empty_nest-en-noun-bnAnrBaB",
"links": [
[
"home",
"home"
],
[
"family",
"family"
]
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "97 3",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"lang_code": "cmn",
"roman": "kōngcháo",
"sense": "home or family where the children have moved away",
"word": "空巢"
},
{
"_dis1": "97 3",
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"lang_code": "fi",
"sense": "home or family where the children have moved away",
"word": "tyhjä pesä"
},
{
"_dis1": "97 3",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"lang_code": "de",
"sense": "home or family where the children have moved away",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "leeres Nest"
},
{
"_dis1": "97 3",
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"lang_code": "pl",
"sense": "home or family where the children have moved away",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "puste gniazdo"
},
{
"_dis1": "97 3",
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"lang_code": "pt",
"sense": "home or family where the children have moved away",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "ninho vazio"
}
]
},
{
"derived": [
{
"_dis1": "11 89",
"word": "empty nester"
},
{
"_dis1": "11 89",
"word": "empty nesting"
},
{
"_dis1": "11 89",
"word": "empty nest syndrome"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see empty, nest."
],
"id": "en-empty_nest-en-noun-a5fXP9An",
"links": [
[
"empty",
"empty#English"
],
[
"nest",
"nest#English"
]
],
"related": [
{
"_dis1": "11 89",
"word": "leave the nest"
}
]
}
],
"word": "empty nest"
}
{
"categories": [
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"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Terms with Finnish translations",
"Terms with German translations",
"Terms with Mandarin translations",
"Terms with Polish translations",
"Terms with Portuguese translations"
],
"derived": [
{
"word": "empty nester"
},
{
"word": "empty nesting"
},
{
"word": "empty nest syndrome"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From birds whose offspring leave the nest when they reach maturity.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "empty nests",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "empty nest (plural empty nests)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "leave the nest"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
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],
"examples": [
{
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71,
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]
],
"ref": "2011, Celia Dodd, The Empty Nest: Your Changing Family, Your New Direction, Hachette UK, →ISBN:",
"text": "One woman with a full-on and demanding career e-mailed me to say ‘This empty nest thing is no joke. I didn't realise it would hit me so hard. It is day three of my daughter being gone and I have to resist the urge to weep every time I go past her room.’",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
8,
18
]
],
"ref": "2014, Lisa O. Engelhardt, Empty Nest Therapy, Open Road Media, →ISBN:",
"text": "Yet an “empty nest” can cause confusing emotions for parents. While this juncture can bring on sadness and loneliness, it can also signal newfound freedom and fulfillment.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
22,
32
],
[
223,
233
]
],
"ref": "2025 August 10, Don Riddell, “Now that my kids are off to college, what’s this empty nester dad to do?”, in CNN:",
"text": "As Dodd wrote in ‘The Empty Nest,’ “To me, it was glaringly obvious that parting from a child who has been the centre of your life for twenty-odd years is a really big deal. Yet while new parents are bombarded with advice, empty nest parents are left to muddle through what is arguably the most challenging phase of parenting.”",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A home or a family where the children have grown up and moved away."
],
"links": [
[
"home",
"home"
],
[
"family",
"family"
]
]
},
{
"glosses": [
"Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see empty, nest."
],
"links": [
[
"empty",
"empty#English"
],
[
"nest",
"nest#English"
]
]
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"lang_code": "cmn",
"roman": "kōngcháo",
"sense": "home or family where the children have moved away",
"word": "空巢"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"lang_code": "fi",
"sense": "home or family where the children have moved away",
"word": "tyhjä pesä"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"lang_code": "de",
"sense": "home or family where the children have moved away",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "leeres Nest"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"lang_code": "pl",
"sense": "home or family where the children have moved away",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "puste gniazdo"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"lang_code": "pt",
"sense": "home or family where the children have moved away",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "ninho vazio"
}
],
"word": "empty nest"
}
Download raw JSONL data for empty nest meaning in English (3.3kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-09-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-08-23 using wiktextract (20da82b and a97feda). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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