Definition of "nidus" []

• A nest, especially one for the eggs of insects, spiders, or small animals. (noun)
• A cavity where spores develop. (noun)
• Pathology A central point or focus of bacterial growth in a living organism. (noun)
• A point or place at which something originates, accumulates, or develops, as the center around which salts of calcium, uric acid, or bile acid form calculi. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Tyndall had shown that in the moving particles of fine dust discovered by a ray of light in a dark room the germs of low forms of life, which would cause putrefaction, were ever present, and ready to spring into life when a favorable "nidus" for the development of the organism was provided."
• "Such was the 'nidus' or soil, which constituted, in the strict sense of the word, the circumstances of Milton's mind."
• "This observation of conflicting statements became the nidus forming PMW, a foundation which Itamar continues to direct today."