matryoshka

plural matryoshkas · plural matryoshki · alternative matreshka · alternative matrëshka · alternative matrioshka

1. One of a set of wooden Russian dolls of different sizes, designed such that each fits inside the next.First known use 20th c.

   The past is not only a foreign country that we half knew existed; it is hiding another concealed country behind it, and behind that one, another, and another – like a set of Russian matryoshki, in which larger dolls conceal smaller.

   2011, Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms, Penguin, page 35

   Synonyms: babushka, babushka doll, matryoshka doll, Russian doll