‖ nidus
(ˈnaɪdəs)
Pl. nidi (ˈnaɪdaɪ) and niduses.
[L. nīdus:—*nizdus: see nest n.]
1. a. Zool. A nest or place in which small animals, such as insects, snails, etc., lodge or deposit their eggs.
| 1742 H. Baker Microsc. ii. i. 70 The Eggs..hatch and thrive when they happen to be lodged in a proper Nidus for them. 1760–72 tr. Juan & Ulloa's Voy. (ed. 3) I. 66 The cavity left, by the removal of the nidus, must be immediately filled..with tobacco ashes. 1812 Sir J. Sinclair Syst. Husb. Scot. i. Add. 12 The insects and their nidi are..exposed to the attacks of small birds. 1854 Hooker Himal. Jrnls. I. ii. 46 The many-celled nidus of the leaf-cutter bee. 1871 T. R. Jones Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4) 152 Cystic parasites still enclosed in the nidus in which they are found in the omentum of rabbits. |
b. Bot. A place or substance in which spores or seeds develop.
| 1796 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) IV. 350 Though the fruit of such trees may be its more common nidus, I found it growing in large clusters on a rotten stick. 1859 T. Moore Brit. Ferns 15 The spores..would find a proper nidus for their development. 1868 Herschel in People's Mag. Jan. 62 Forming a sort of vegetable honeycomb, and serving..for a nidus to the spores. |
c. Phys. and Path. A place of origin or development for some state or substance.
| 1804 Abernethy Surg. Obs. 68 The mammary gland seems to be the nidus for this diseased action. 1845 Todd & Bowman Phys. Anat. I. 88 In man, and the higher animals, cartilage is employed temporarily as a nidus for bone. 1879 St. George's Hosp. Rep. IX. 776 By purifying the cavity a fresh nidus for the disease is removed. |
d. fig. A source or origin; a place where some quality or principle is fostered.
| 1807 Edin. Rev. IX. 415 The true nidus of the erroneous sentiments. 1817 Keatinge Trav. II. 147 The Sorbonne, formerly the nidus of pedantry. 1845 R. W. Hamilton Pop. Educ. i. (ed. 2) 9 It is the nidus of a new commonwealth. 1863 Geo. Eliot Romola xi, The order of nature, which treats all maturity as a mere nidus for youth. |
2. A place in which something is formed, deposited, settled, or located.
| 1778 King in Phil. Trans. LXIX. 46 A proper nidus for the assemblage of the most valuable metals. 1846 Callaway Dislocations (1849) 70 The bone again nearly always slips out from its nidus. 1876 Trans. Clinical Soc. IX. 165 The severe vomiting and purging probably dislodged the calculus from its nidus. |
3. A collection of eggs, tubercles, etc.
| 1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) II. 492 In many cases the cysts or niduses of tubercles possess so little energy of action as never to exceed the size of a small shot. 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxix. III. 75 Reaumur had once brought to him a nidus of eggs clothed still more curiously. |