English Dictionary

HORNET'S NEST

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IPA (US): 

 Dictionary entry overview: What does hornet's nest mean? 

HORNET'S NEST (noun)
  The noun HORNET'S NEST has 2 senses:

1. a highly contentious or hazardous situationplay

2. habitation for wasps or hornetsplay

  Familiarity information: HORNET'S NEST used as a noun is rare.


 Dictionary entry details 


HORNET'S NEST (noun)


Sense 1

Meaning:

A highly contentious or hazardous situation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

hornet's nest; hornets' nest

Context example:

talk of invading Iraq stirred up a political hornets' nest

Hypernyms ("hornet's nest" is a kind of...):

situation (a complex or critical or unusual difficulty)


Sense 2

Meaning:

Habitation for wasps or hornets

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

hornet's nest; hornets' nest; wasp's nest; wasps' nest

Hypernyms ("hornet's nest" is a kind of...):

nidus (a nest in which spiders or insects deposit their eggs)


 Context examples 


Mother, said I, take the whole and let's be going, for I was sure the bolted door must have seemed suspicious and would bring the whole hornet's nest about our ears, though how thankful I was that I had bolted it, none could tell who had never met that terrible blind man.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
"Better late than never." (English proverb)

"Those who play bowls must look out for rubbers." (Aboriginal Australian proverbs)

"Among the blind, the one-eyed man is king." (Arabic proverb)

"Have faith and God will provide." (Corsican proverb)



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