Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The shelter or retreat of a wild animal; a lair.
  • noun A cave or hollow used as a refuge or hiding place.
  • noun A hidden or squalid dwelling place.
  • noun A secluded room for study or relaxation.
  • noun A unit of about eight to ten Cub Scouts.
  • intransitive verb To inhabit or hide in a den.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A hollow place in the earth or in a rock; a cave, pit, or subterraneous recess, used for concealment, shelter, protection, or security: as, a lion's den.
  • noun A grave.
  • noun Any squalid place of resort or residence; a haunt: always used in a bad sense: as, dens of misery.
  • noun A small or secluded private apartment; a retreat for work or leisure.
  • noun A narrow valley; a glen; a dell.
  • To dwell in or as if in a den.
  • noun A corruption of even in the phrase good even.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A small cavern or hollow place in the side of a hill, or among rocks; esp., a cave used by a wild beast for shelter or concealment
  • noun A squalid place of resort; a wretched dwelling place; a haunt.
  • noun colloq. Any snug or close retreat where one goes to be alone.
  • noun Old Eng. & Scotch A narrow glen; a ravine; a dell.
  • intransitive verb To live in, or as in, a den.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The home of certain animals.
  • noun A comfortable room not used for formal entertaining.
  • verb reflexive To ensconce or hide oneself in (or as in) a den.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a room that is comfortable and secluded
  • noun a hiding place; usually a remote place used by outlaws
  • noun the habitation of wild animals
  • noun a unit of 8 to 10 cub scouts

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English denn.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English den, from Old English denn ("den, lair (of a beast), cave; a swine-pasture, a woodland pasture for swine"), from Proto-Germanic *danjō (“threshing-floor, barn-floor”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰen- (“flat surface, board, sheet, area, palm of the hand”). Cognate with Scots den ("den, lair"), 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").

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Examples

  • January 22, 2008 at 8:05 am mai brudder took Barbie and tieded a string on her nek and dunkeded her in gasoline and sets her ablazin den he swings her aroun in big circle ober his hed while he be chasin me…..ai thought it was her screemin den ai real-eyezed it be me screamin….taked me yeers to get bedder…..den ai foun out ai be good at fixin burns an helpin sik peeps….da rest be hiss-teree!

    hoo turn off mah bubblez? - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2008

  • In Swedish the word den meant “the,” but döve was not a white bird of peace.

    Eight Black Horses Ed McBain 1985

  • Again and again he interrupted her to express his doubt on that point, and when dinner was over and Mrs. Bannister had retired, and we were smoking in the room which he called his den, he unmasked to me a mind weary of working over nothing.

    David Malcolm Nelson Lloyd 1903

  • He took the boy in and up to the little room on the second floor which he called his den; and, turning on the light, motioned him to a chair, laid aside his hat and gloves, and was just about to pull up a chair for himself when he caught sight of an unstamped letter lying upon his writing-table.

    Cleek: the Man of the Forty Faces Thomas W. Hanshew 1885

  • I might have understood how clumsy I was, when I was rearing my children in the most utter idleness and luxury, to reform other people and their children, who were perishing from idleness in what I called the den of the Rzhanoff house, where, nevertheless, three-fourths of the people toil for themselves and for others.

    What to Do? Leo Tolstoy 1869

  • But she called it his "den", and Sabre loathed and detested the word den as applied to a room a man specially inhabits.

    If Winter Comes 1925

  • Vermutlich nicht, da ich in den USA völlig unbekannt bin und bisher auch kein Mega-Bestseller-Autor in Deutschland.

    Guest Author: Michelle Raven Nalini Singh 2009

  • In Deutschland war Michaela in den frühen 70er Jahren ein sehr beliebter Name.

    Guest Author: Michelle Raven Nalini Singh 2009

  • Auch wenn ich jetzt vorgreife, sind in den Fortsetzungen die Personen der früheren Bücher miteinander verbunden?

    Guest Author: Michelle Raven Nalini Singh 2009

  • Meine Antwort war, dass ich in den letzten 10 Jahren einige Male in Kalifornien war und die westliche USA einfach liebe, besonders den Südwesten.

    Guest Author: Michelle Raven Nalini Singh 2009

Comments

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  • Denver International Airport.

    October 21, 2008

  • On the table in his den is a copy of his new book, 12 Rules for Life.

    January 18, 2018