Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One, such as a bird, that nests.
  • noun Western US A squatter, homesteader, or farmer who settles in cattle-grazing territory.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun One who nests.
  • noun A person who intends to settle in an area without permanent residents; a settler, as distinct from an explorer or pioneer.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The eyes of the nester were a barometer of his temper.

    A Man Four-Square William MacLeod Raine 1912

  • I am a passionate "nester" and have spent years and a lot of wasted money following the latest "look".

    Creating a Beautiful Home Without Decorating 2007

  • There was only one man Kit at all trusted, a "nester" (small ranchman) named Racketty Smith.

    The Red-Blooded Heroes of the Frontier Edgar Beecher Bronson

  • The XIX ranch, owned by a small "nester" named Henderson, could not be more than five or six miles to the southeast.

    Wyoming, a Story of the Outdoor West William MacLeod Raine 1912

  • Indian days over; "nester" days with frame houses and vegetable patches not yet here.

    The Killer Stewart Edward White 1909

  • Of course the 'nester' or 'punkin roller,' as we contemptuously called the small farmer, began sifting in here and there in spite of our guns, but he was only a mosquito bite in comparison with the trouble which our cow-punchers stirred up.

    Cavanaugh: Forest Ranger A Romance of the Mountain West Hamlin Garland 1900

  • Its decline set in on what day the first lank "nester" from the States outspanned his sun-burned team as he pulled up beside some sweet water on the rolling lands, somewhere in the West, and looked about him, and looked again at the land map held in his hand.

    The Passing of the Frontier; a chronicle of the old West Emerson Hough 1890

  • "nester" has his cabin and is struggling, generally in vain, to dig a living out of the soil in a region which God never made for farming.

    Roosevelt in the Bad Lands Hermann Hagedorn 1923

  • a "nester," or "truck farmer," who was likely to fence in the river somewhere and homestead some land.

    The Eagle's Heart Hamlin Garland 1900

  • The power of the 'nester' has steadily increased from that moment. "

    Cavanaugh: Forest Ranger A Romance of the Mountain West Hamlin Garland 1900

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