Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Nurse
Nurse
(nûrs)
, Noun.
[OE.
nourse
, nurice
, norice
, OF. nurrice
, norrice
, nourrice
, F. nourrice
, fr. L. nutricia
nurse, prop., fem. of nutricius
that nourishes; akin to nutrix
, -icis
, nurse, fr. nutrire
to nourish. See Nourish
, and cf. Nutritious
.] 1.
One who nourishes; a person who supplies food, tends, or brings up; as:
(a)
A woman who has the care of young children; especially, one who suckles an infant not her own. (b)
A person, especially a woman, who has the care of the sick or infirm. 2.
One who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow, trains, fosters, or the like.
The
nurse
of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise. Burke.
3.
(Naut.)
A lieutenant or first officer, who is the real commander when the captain is unfit for his place.
4.
(Zool.)
(a)
A peculiar larva of certain trematodes which produces cercariae by asexual reproduction. See
Cercaria
, and Redia
. (b)
Either one of the nurse sharks.
Nurse shark
. (Zool.)
(a)
A large arctic shark (
Somniosus microcephalus
), having small teeth and feeble jaws; – called also sleeper shark
, and ground shark
. (b)
A large shark (
– Ginglymostoma cirratum
), native of the West Indies and Gulf of Mexico, having the dorsal fins situated behind the ventral fins. To put to nurse
, or To put out to nurse
to send away to be nursed; to place in the care of a nurse.
– Wet nurse
, Dry nurse
Nurse
,Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Nursed
; p. pr. & vb. n.
Nursing
.] 1.
To nourish; to cherish; to foster
; as: (a)
To nourish at the breast; to suckle; to feed and tend, as an infant.
(b)
To take care of or tend, as a sick person or an invalid; to attend upon.
Sons wont to
nurse
their parents in old age. Milton.
Him in Egerian groves Aricia bore,
And
And
nursed
his youth along the marshy shore. Dryden.
2.
To bring up; to raise, by care, from a weak or invalid condition; to foster; to cherish; – applied to plants, animals, and to any object that needs, or thrives by, attention.
“To nurse the saplings tall.” Milton.
By what hands [has vice] been
nursed
into so uncontrolled a dominion? Locke.
3.
To manage with care and economy, with a view to increase;
as, to
. nurse
our national resources4.
To caress; to fondle, as a nurse does.
A. Trollope.
To nurse billiard balls
, to strike them gently and so as to keep them in good position during a series of caroms.
Webster 1828 Edition
Nurse
NURSE
, n.1.
A woman that has the care of infants, or a woman employed to tend the children of others.2.
A woman who suckles infants.3.
A woman that has the care of a sick person.4.
A man who has the care of the sick.5.
A person that breeds, educates or protects; hence, that which breeds, brings up or causes to grow; as Greece, the nurse of the liberal arts.6.
An old woman; in contempt.7.
The state of being nursed; as, to put a child to nurse.8.
In composition, that which supplies food; as a nurse-pond.NURSE
,Verb.
T.
1.
To tend, as infants; as, to nurse a child.2.
To suckle; to nourish at the breast.3.
To attend and take care of in child-bed; as, to nurse a woman in her illness.4.
To tend the sick; applied to males and females.5.
To ffed; to maintain; to bring up. Isaiah 60.6.
To cherish; to foster; to encourage; to promote growth in. We say, to nurse a feeble animal or plant.By what hands has vice been nursed into so uncontrolled a dominion?
7.
To manage with care and economy, with a view to increase; as, to nurse our national resources.