leave the nest

leave the nest

To move out of one's parents home for the first time, most typically when going into third-level education. I can't believe my little girl is getting ready to leave the nest. I'm so proud and so sad all at once! While it is liberating for most teenagers, leaving the nest can be a very emotionally challenging period in one's life.
See also: leave, nest
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • (from) top to toe
  • back home
  • a full-time job
  • abode
  • better (to be) safe than sorry
  • better safe than sorry
  • at doorstep
  • at (one's) doorstep
  • at (one's) expense
  • at someone's expense
References in classic literature
In England the masters alone usually leave the nest to collect building materials and food for themselves, their slaves and larvae.
Hotdog is already starting to leave the nest, so guests might be lucky enough to see him/her
Or perhaps it is because, by the time they leave the nest, they look just like adult birds.
A study by the game fund has found the average number of eggs is six while the average number of chicks surviving to leave the nest is four.
At one point or another, the children are going to grow up and leave the nest. But what do the writers do with these profound characters, because they have spent so much time developing them and built a following of like-minded peers?
Chicks start to leave the nest from August onwards, and take a few years until they too start breeding.
Males will not feed again until the young bass leave the nest site several weeks later.
Then, as her children prepare to leave the nest, the children fight to be allowed to be themselves," she added.
| One hipster thing that I hope Midsters won't need in their life is the new trend for adulting classes where people over the age of 18 (so, old enough to know better) are being taught how to do things like use a washing machine, change a lightbulb and live on a budget, so they are prepared to eventually leave the nest and live in the real world.
BIRDS OF A FEATHER (ITV, 8.30pm) A COUPLE of the birds are forced to leave the nest as tension rise in the house.
best comedy UNDER (Channel 4, Friday, ADAM Hills heads home to Australia and co-presenters Widdicombe Brooker He has butt of jokes few BIRDS OF A FEATHER (ITV, 8.30pm) A COUPLE of the birds are forced to leave the nest as tension rise in the house.
They don't feed the seeds to their young - which have an insect diet until they leave the nest - but to sustain themselves.
Believe it or not Ireland had its own fully-fledged fascist party and another one which didn't quite leave the nest.
She'll leave the nest only one more time -- to die when the leaves fall, the cold winds blow, and fruit and nectar sources disappear.
Although your pocket and your heart may already have taken a battering as they prepare to leave the nest, you still have to perform one important last parental duty before you say goodbye - settling them into their new room.