den
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Appendix:Variations of "den"
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Translingual
Symbol
den
- (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Slavey. (macrolanguage)
English
Etymology 1
From Middle English den, from Old English denn (“den, lair (of a beast), cave; a swine-pasture, a woodland pasture for swine”), from Proto-West Germanic *dani (“threshing-floor, barn-floor”). Cognate with Scots den (“den, lair”), Middle Dutch denne (“burrow, den, cave, attic”), Dutch den (“ship's deck, threshing-floor, mountain floor”), Middle Low German denne, danne (“threshing-floor, small dale”), German Tenne (“threshing-floor, barn for threshing”).
Pronunciation
Noun
den (plural dens)
- A small cavern or hollow place in the side of a hill, or among rocks; especially, a cave used by a wild animal for shelter or concealment.
- Synonyms: lair; luster; Wiktionary appendix of animal terms, including their homes
- a den of robbers
- Daniel was put into the lions’ den.
- A squalid or wretched place; a haunt.
- a den of vice
- an opium den; a gambling den
- 1980, Colin Hay, Ron Strykert, “Down Under”, performed by Men at Work:
- Lying in a den in Bombay
With a slack jaw and not much to say
- A comfortable room not used for formal entertaining.
- Synonym: family room
- Synonym of fort (“structure improvised from furniture, etc. for playing games.”)
- Our little girls love using bedsheets and other stuff around the house to make dens in the living room and pretending they're on adventures.
- (UK, Scotland, obsolete) A narrow glen; a ravine; a dell.
- 1806, Sir William Forbes, An Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie, LL.D., including many of his Original Letters:
- I have made several visits of late to the Den of Rubislaw
- A group of Cub Scouts of the same age who work on projects together.
Derived terms
Translations
home of certain animals
|
squalid or wretched place
living room of a house
|
Verb
den (third-person singular simple present dens, present participle denning, simple past and past participle denned)
- (reflexive) To ensconce or hide oneself in (or as in) a den.
- (intransitive, zoology) Of an animal, to use as a den; to take up residence in.
- 2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 203:
- Although present in virtually all habitats, it preferred to den in caves, so its distribution, especially in cold, northern areas, may have been limited to limestone and other rocky regions where caves form.
- 2023 August 30, Patrick Greenfield, “Why it may be time to stop using the polar bear as a symbol of the climate crisis”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
- “Denning” – behaviour around making dens – has changed and bears are swimming long distances, but, says Aars, there is still enough sea ice in the spring for the bears to hunt successfully.
Etymology 2
From Old French denier, from Latin denarius.
Noun
den
- Abbreviation of denier (a unit of weight)
Etymology 3
Noun
den (plural dens)
- (Northumbria, chiefly in place names) Alternative form of dene.
Derived terms
Etymology 4
Adverb
den (not comparable)
- Pronunciation spelling of then, representing AAVE, Bermuda English.
See also
Anagrams
Afrikaans
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
den (plural denne)
- pine (tree)
Akan
Bambara
Breton
Catalan
Cimbrian
Cornish
Czech
Danish
Dutch
German
Irish
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Minangkabau
Mokilese
Norwegian Bokmål
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Papiamentu
Pennsylvania German
Polish
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Swedish
Zhuang
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