COCOON

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cocoon mean? 

• COCOON (noun)
  The noun COCOON has 1 sense:

1. silky envelope spun by the larvae of many insects to protect pupas and by spiders to protect eggs

  Familiarity information: COCOON used as a noun is very rare.

• COCOON (verb)
  The verb COCOON has 2 senses:

1. retreat as if into a cocoon, as from an unfriendly environment

2. wrap in or as if in a cocoon, as for protection

  Familiarity information: COCOON used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COCOON (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Silky envelope spun by the larvae of many insects to protect pupas and by spiders to protect eggs

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("cocoon" is a kind of...):

natural object (an object occurring naturally; not made by man)

Derivation:

cocoon (wrap in or as if in a cocoon, as for protection)

• COCOON (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they cocoon    ... he / she / it cocoons   
Past simple: cocooned   
Past participle: cocooned   
-ing form: cocooning   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Retreat as if into a cocoon, as from an unfriendly environment

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Context example:

She loves to stay at home and cocoon

Hypernyms (to "cocoon" is one way to...):

retreat (move away, as for privacy)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sense 2

Meaning:

Wrap in or as if in a cocoon, as for protection

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "cocoon" is one way to...):

enclose; enfold; envelop; enwrap; wrap (enclose or enfold completely with or as if with a covering)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

cocoon (silky envelope spun by the larvae of many insects to protect pupas and by spiders to protect eggs)

 Context examples 

They found the unique chemical fingerprints located in the warm, dense inner regions of the cocoon of dust and gas surrounding young stars in their earliest stages of evolution.

(ALMA Finds Ingredient of Life Around Infant Sun-like Stars, ESO)

The light is blocked by surrounding cocoons of dust.

(The Most Luminous Galaxy in Universe, NASA)

SOFIA's infrared camera called FORCAST, the Faint Object Infrared Camera for the SOFIA Telescope, however, can pierce through these cocoons.

(SOFIA Reveals How the Swan Nebula Hatched, NASA)

The star is ending its life by casting off its outer layers of gas, which formed a cocoon around the star's remaining core.

(Hubble Views a Colorful Demise of a Sun-like Star, NASA)

As part of the VLA nascent disk and multiplicity survey (VANDAM for short), the researchers mapped the radio waves leaking out of a dense cocoon of dust about 600 light-years away that contained a whole nursery of young stars.

(Our Sun Could Have Been Born With an Evil Twin Called "Nemesis", The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

These stars may be many times the size of our Sun, but the youngest generations are forming deep in cocoons of dust and gas, where they are very difficult to see, even with space telescopes.

(SOFIA Reveals How the Swan Nebula Hatched, NASA)