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den

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

See also: Appendix:Variations of "den"
Languages (34)
Translingual • English
Afrikaans • Akan • Bambara • Breton • Catalan • Cimbrian • Cornish • Czech • Danish • Dutch • German • Irish • Japanese • Luxembourgish • Malay • Mandarin • Messapic • Middle Dutch • Middle English • Minangkabau • Mokilese • Norwegian Bokmål • Norwegian Nynorsk • Old Czech • Papiamentu • Pennsylvania German • Polish • Russenorsk • Spanish • Sranan Tongo • Swedish • Zhuang
Page categories

Translingual

Symbol

den

  1. (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)

  1. 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.
  2. A squalid or wretched place; a haunt.
    a den of vice
    an opium den; a gambling den
  3. A comfortable room not used for formal entertaining.
    Synonym: family room
  4. 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.
  5. (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
  6. A group of Cub Scouts of the same age who work on projects together.
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

den (third-person singular simple present dens, present participle denning, simple past and past participle denned)

  1. (reflexive) To ensconce or hide oneself in (or as in) a den.
  2. (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

  1. Abbreviation of denier (a unit of weight)

Etymology 3

Noun

den (plural dens)

  1. (Northumbria, chiefly in place names) Alternative form of dene.
Derived terms

Etymology 4

Adverb

den (not comparable)

  1. Pronunciation spelling of then, representing AAVE, Bermuda English.

See also

Anagrams

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch den.

Pronunciation

IPA(key): /dɛn/

Noun

den (plural denne)

  1. pine (tree)

Akan

Bambara

Breton

Catalan

Cimbrian

Cornish

Czech

Danish

Dutch

German

Irish

Japanese

Luxembourgish

Malay

Mandarin

Messapic

Middle Dutch

Middle English

Minangkabau

Mokilese

Norwegian Bokmål

Norwegian Nynorsk

Old Czech

Papiamentu

Pennsylvania German

Polish

Russenorsk

Spanish

Sranan Tongo

Swedish

Zhuang

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