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# 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 →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/den/#m1)

2) A secret hideout that children build or play in, from sticks, blankets or boxes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/den/#m2)

3) A small cosy room in a house for relaxing (mainly American). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/den/#m3)

4) A place where bad things happen in secret: a den of thieves. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/den/#m4)

### 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 →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/den/#x1)
- The fox cubs stayed safe in their den. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/den/#x2)
- Bears sleep in dens during the winter. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/den/#x3)
- My brother and I made a blanket den in the living room. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/den/#x4)
- Dad watches TV in the den. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/den/#x5)
- Going to the head teacher's office felt like walking into the lion's den. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/den/#x6)
- The robbers met in a secret den. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/den/#x7)
- Never crawl into an animal's den. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/den/#x8)

### 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.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/23-bears/11/)
- [Serengeti lions rest on rocky outcrops called kopjes, which give them shade, a lookout and safe dens for cubs.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/124-the-lion-king-real-lions/5/)
- [Hunters lived there too: cave lions, cave hyenas that dragged bones to their dens, and people.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/385-ice-age-ukraine-and-europe-cave-bears-cave-lions-the-siberian-unicorn-and-mammoth-bone-houses/4/)
- [Cave hyenas cracked bones with powerful jaws and dragged them to their dens, which scientists find by gnawed bones and fossil droppings.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/385-ice-age-ukraine-and-europe-cave-bears-cave-lions-the-siberian-unicorn-and-mammoth-bone-houses/17/)
- [When the beat falls earlier there is no doubling: GAR-den, gardening; VIS-it, visited.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/7-adding-ed-and-ing-doubling-and-dropping-e/9/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «den» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/den/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.