empty nest

noun

1. a household in which one or more parents live after the children have left home:

   Our only child just moved into her first apartment, so we have an empty nest.

2. a stage in a parent’s life after the children have left home.

empty nest

1. The stage in a family's cycle when the children have grown up and left home to begin their own adult lives.

Notes

For parents, the empty nest sometimes results in midlife anxiety .

Word History and Origins

Origin of empty nest¹

First recorded in 1885–90

Idioms and Phrases

The home of parents whose children have grown up and moved out. For example, Now that they had an empty nest, Jim and Jane opened a bed-and-breakfast . This expression, alluding to a nest from which baby birds have flown, gave rise to such related ones as empty-nester , for a parent whose children had moved out, and empty-nest syndrome , for the state of mind of parents whose children had left. [c. 1970]

Example Sentences

He was angry that I even considered uprooting our empty nest for such a pursuit.

From Salon

Papa, whose new special comes out Tuesday, talks about his style of clean comedy, handling empty nest syndrome with his daughters going to college, his many pets and love of baking bread.

From Los Angeles Times

I guess I had a typical experience with my daughters going to college, that so-called empty nest syndrome.

From Los Angeles Times

I’ve been steeling myself to face an empty nest for months now, but in many ways she is already gone.

From Los Angeles Times

Like many members of Generation X facing an empty nest, the Shipleys decided to look for a home better suited to their needs where they could eventually live in retirement.

From New York Times