noun either one of the nurse sharks.
2. nurse ·vt to caress; to fondle, as a nurse does.
3. nurse ·vt to take care of or tend, as a sick person or an invalid; to attend upon.
4. nurse ·noun one who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow, trains, fosters, or the like.
5. nurse ·vt to manage with care and economy, with a view to increase; as, to nurse our national resources.
6. nurse ·noun a lieutenant or first officer, who is the real commander when the captain is unfit for his place.
7. nurse ·vt to nourish; to cherish; to foster.
8. nurse ·noun a peculiar larva of certain trematodes which produces cercariae by asexual reproduction. ·see cercaria, and redia.
9. nurse ·vt to nourish at the breast; to suckle; to feed and tend, as an infant.
10. nurse ·vt 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.
11. nurse ·noun 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.