crow's nest

See also: crow's-nest and crowsnest

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From the habit of crows building nests high up in trees.

Noun

crow's nest (plural crow's nests)

  1. (nautical) A small open-top shelter, originally a cask, on the top of the foremast, large enough to accommodate a lookout. It was used by whalers to watch for a blow (spout), or in icebound waters to seek a channel.
    • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 35, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
      When Captain Sleet in person stood his mast-head in this crow’s-nest of his, he tells us that he always had a rifle with him (also fixed in the rack), together with a powder flask and shot, for the purpose of popping off the stray narwhales, or vagrant sea unicorns infesting those waters; […] .

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