I. ˈnərs, ˈnə̄s, ˈnəis noun
( -s )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English nurse, norse, nurice, from Old French norrice, nurice, from Late Latin nutricia, from Latin, feminine of nutricius, nutritius nourishing — more at nutritious
1.
a. : a woman who suckles and takes care of an infant that is not her own : wet nurse
b. : a woman who takes care of a young child : dry nurse
2.
a. : a person who looks after or gives advice to another
b. : something that serves as a fostering agency or influence
time is a nurse and breeder of all good — Shakespeare
3.
a. : a person skilled in caring for and waiting on the infirm, the injured, or the sick ; specifically : one especially trained to carry out such duties under the supervision of a physician
b. : a person especially trained to assist a physician or dentist (as in an operating room)
4. : nurse tree
5.
a. : a worker form of a social insect (as an ant or bee) that cares for the young
b. : an asexual oozooid that produces and carries the blastozooids in some ascidians (as of the genus Doliolum )
c. : a female mammal used to suckle the young of another female usually of her own kind — usually used with following noun
nurse doe
nurse cow
nurse mare
6. : the act of nursing the balls in billiards
•
- to nurse
II. verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: alteration (influenced by nurse ) (I) of Middle English nurshen to nourish, contraction of nurishen — more at nourish
transitive verb
1.
a. : to nourish at the breast : suckle
four women were unable to nurse their infants — J.P.Greenhill
keep the kittens alive till the mother can nurse them — Eleanor B. Simmons
b. : to take nourishment from the breast of : suck milk from
possible for a baby to contract tuberculosis from nursing its mother — L.H.Brevard
the foal should not be permitted to nurse the mare when she is hot and sweating — James Law & M.S.Shahan
2. : to bring up : rear , educate
for we were nursed upon the selfsame hill — John Milton
3.
a. : to promote the growth, development, or progress of
anything to nurse the arts and bring them into the homes of the … people — M.R.Cohen
the policy of attracting original work and nursing authors of promise — Times Literary Supplement
b. : to cultivate (a plant) with care
nursed the long rows of vines that were their livelihood — Margaret Evans
c. : to manage (as a business) with care or economy
on his hundreds of thousands of dollars — nursed into millions — a substantial Boston family had been built — J.A.Michener
d. : to take charge of and watch over in the manner of a nurse
to ensure that performers arrive on time he nurses them from show to show — Don Everitt
trout are hatched and nursed to planting age — American Guide Series: Washington
e. : to cause to develop
fancied it to be their interest … to nurse the embers of the old enmity into a flame — Edward Edwards
4.
a. : to care for and wait on (as an injured or infirm person) : attend
great-grandfather was bedridden … and my mother nursed him — Ellen Glasgow
b. : to attempt a cure of (as an ailment) by care and treatment
would stay in her room and nurse a sick headache — Louis Auchincloss
had been pitched against a bridge … and was nursing a painfully bruised arm — Llewellyn Howland
5. : to hold in one's heart or mind : keep in memory or consideration
had spent the night watches in nursing his wrath — John Buchan
did not nurse the idea that her life was at an end — Arnold Bennett
nursed a plan to invade the South and forcibly liberate the slaves — B.B.Stutler
6. : to hold or grasp carefully or firmly
nurse my fat briefcase on my knees and go through my papers — Christopher Morley
took her hands again and nursed them against my cheek — Mary Austin
7.
a. : to use, handle, or drive carefully so as to conserve energy or avoid injury
trying to nurse a gigantic crippled plane back over many hundreds of miles of open ocean — J.A.Michener
b. : to use with forethought and care so as to conserve or stretch out
nurses his time so that he may keep his brain in rested condition for decisions — Atlantic
c. : to consume slowly so as to conserve or stretch out
like to nurse a drink … and watch the people around us — Dwight Taylor
nurses a cup of coffee and a doughnut until it is morning — Norman Mailer
8. chiefly Britain : to attract or sustain the favorable attention of usually by personal contacts and the dispensing of favors in order to sustain electoral support
is busy nursing his constituency and calculating how he can be reelected — W.E.Binkley
9. : to keep (billiard balls) close together and in good position for a series of caroms
intransitive verb
1.
a. : to give suck
b. : to feed at the breast : suck
2. : to act or serve as a nurse
Synonyms:
cultivate , nurture , foster , cherish : nurse implies careful sustaining of an infant, person, thing, or notion. cultivate is likely to differ from nurse in suggesting methods of sustaining and protecting the useful in the plant world; it implies sedulous and steady care but lacks the human warmth suggested in many of the other words in this group
spinning theories of fiction is my favorite amusement … a good habit to cultivate — Ellen Glasgow
whatever physical gifts she may have are carefully cultivated — Lafcadio Hearn
the morbid curiosity cultivated in Browning by his father's tasks and inclinations — Ruth R. Chapman
nurture places stress on giving that which sustains and affording a safe environment pointing toward a certain development or course
men who have not been nurtured in dissecting rooms and other laboratories — C.S.Peirce
had been nurtured in sentiments opposed to the institution of human servitude — R.P.Warren
foster may suggest the relationship of foster parent to child in implying caring for, encouraging, sustaining, and maintaining growth
such a sentiment is fostered by all those agencies of the mind and spirit which may serve to gather up the traditions of the people — Felix Frankfurter
the pope … used his powers to foster abuses that brought wealth to the Roman court — G.M.Trevelyan
we must foster on every campus the principle of individualism as contrasted with docile receptivity — C.M.Fuess
cherish implies fondness or love for something with incidental nurturing of it
a cause which is embraced and cherished by so vast a portion of American society — Kenneth Roberts
III. noun
( -s )
Etymology: earlier nuse, from Middle English nusse
: nurse shark