The Collaborative International Dictionary
crow's-nest \crow's"-nest`\, crow's nest \crow's" nest`\(kr[=o]z"n[e^]st`), n. (Naut.) A box or platform near the top of a mast, esp. in whalers, to shelter the man on the lookout.
Wiktionary
n. (alternative spelling of crow's nest English)
Usage examples of "crow's-nest".
The newcomer could have been built from the same plans as the Spurdog but a sterner shipwright had fashioned the plain rails ringing the crow's-nests and deck castles.
Sailors in the Eryngo\ crow's-nests looked in all directions for any sign of the enemy.
When Captain Sleet in person stood his mast-head in this crow's-nest of his, he tells us that he always had a rifle with him (also fixed in the rack), together with a powder flask and shot, for the purpose of popping off the stray narwhales, or vagrant sea unicorns infesting those waters.
Concerning all this, it is much to be deplored that the mast-heads of a southern whale ship are unprovided with those enviable little tents or pulpits, called CROW'S-NESTS, in which the look-outs of a Greenland whaler are protected from the inclement weather of the frozen seas.