nidify

English

WOTD – 24 March 2010

From Latin nīdificō (“build a nest”), from nīdus (“nest”) + faciō (“make, do”).

nidify (third-person singular simple present nidifies, present participle nidifying, simple past and past participle nidified)

(zoology) To make a nest.
- 1854, Albany Hancock, "Observations on the Nidification of Gasterosteus aculeatus and Gasterosteus spinachia", The Zoologist 12: 4409
  It is only within the last few years that naturalists have clearly determined that some species of fish make nests for the reception of their spawn […] Five or six kinds are now ascertained to nidify; and of these, two belong to the genus Gasterosteus […]
- 1997, Gert-Jan van Dijk, Ainoi, Logoi, Mythoi: Fables in Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic Greek Culture, page 206
  […] it may originally have explained why dung beetles do not appear when eagles nidify; […]

to make a nest