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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
.
See
Wet nurse
, and
Dry nurse
, in the Vocabulary.

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
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 resources
.
4.
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.

Definition 2024

nurse

nurse

English

Noun

nurse ‎(plural nurses)

  1. (archaic) A wet-nurse.
  2. A person (usually a woman) who takes care of other people’s young.
    They hired a nurse to care for their young boy
  3. A person trained to provide care for the sick.
    The nurse made her rounds through the hospital ward
    • 1990, House of Cards, Season 1, Episode 4:
      Francis Urquhart: Right. Mackenzie. Health. No chance of getting him into a demo at a hospital, I suppose?
      Tim Stamper: Doesn't go to hospitals any more. Kept getting beaten up by the nurses... I think he has trouble getting insured now.
  4. One who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow, trains, fosters, or the like.
    • Burke
      the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise
  5. (nautical) A lieutenant or first officer who takes command when the captain is unfit for his place.
  6. A larva of certain trematodes, which produces cercariae by asexual reproduction.
  7. A nurse shark.

Usage notes

  • Some speakers consider nurses (medical workers) to be female by default, and thus use "male nurse" to refer to a man doing the same job.

Translations

Verb

nurse ‎(third-person singular simple present nurses, present participle nursing, simple past and past participle nursed)

  1. to breastfeed
    She believes that nursing her baby will make him strong and healthy.
  2. to care for the sick
    She nursed him back to health.
  3. to treat kindly and with extra care
    She nursed the rosebush and that season it bloomed.
  4. to drink slowly
  5. to foster, to nourish
  6. to hold closely to one's chest
    Would you like to nurse the puppy?
  7. to strike (billiard balls) gently, so as to keep them in good position during a series of shots
    • 1866, United States. Congress. Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, Supplemental report of the Joint Committee
      It is to our interest to let Lee and Johnston come together, just as a billiard-player would nurse the balls when he has them in a nice place.

Usage notes

In sense “to drink slowly”, generally negative and particularly used for someone at a bar, suggesting they either cannot afford to buy another drink or are too miserly to do so. By contrast, sip is more neutral.

Synonyms

  • (drink slowly): sip, see also Wikisaurus:drink

Translations

Derived terms

See also

Anagrams

Etymology

Variant form of the archaic nourice, from Old French norrice, from Latin nutricius ‎(“that nourishes”), from nutrix ‎(“wet nurse”), from nutrire ‎(“to suckle”).

Pronunciation

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