den

«den» in Mova's school dictionary: The home of a wild animal, often hidden, like a fox's or… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a den, dens)

meaning for a pupil

1) The home of a wild animal, often hidden, like a fox's or lion's den or a bear's cave. tree →

2) A secret hideout that children build or play in, from sticks, blankets or boxes. tree →

3) A small cosy room in a house for relaxing (mainly American). tree →

4) A place where bad things happen in secret: a den of thieves. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science, many animals use dens to sleep, hide and raise their young: foxes, wolves, bears and badgers (a badger's home is called a sett). In outdoor play and forest school, children build dens from branches and tarps, learning teamwork and design; check that the den is safe and never go into real animal dens. In stories, a "lion's den" means a scary place. Phrases: "build a den", "a fox's den", "into the lion's den", "a den of thieves", "Cub Scout den".

examples

• We built a den out of sticks in the woods. tree →
• The fox cubs stayed safe in their den. tree →
• Bears sleep in dens during the winter. tree →
• My brother and I made a blanket den in the living room. tree →
• Dad watches TV in the den. tree →
• Going to the head teacher's office felt like walking into the lion's den. tree →
• The robbers met in a secret den. tree →
• Never crawl into an animal's den. tree →

note

Countable: a den, dens. Different animals' homes have special names: a rabbit's burrow (warren), a badger's sett, a bird's nest, a bee's hive. In the Scouts (USA), a "den" is a small group of Cub Scouts.

In the corpora

• Black and brown bear cubs are born in the den in midwinter and are only about the size of a guinea pig.
• Serengeti lions rest on rocky outcrops called kopjes, which give them shade, a lookout and safe dens for cubs.
• Hunters lived there too: cave lions, cave hyenas that dragged bones to their dens, and people.
• Cave hyenas cracked bones with powerful jaws and dragged them to their dens, which scientists find by gnawed bones and fossil droppings.
• When the beat falls earlier there is no doubling: GAR-den, gardening; VIS-it, visited.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «den» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.