Adjacent Words

Nurse definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

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, v.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.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: one skilled in caring for young children or the sick (usually under the supervision of a physician)
2: a woman who is the custodian of children [syn: nanny, nursemaid, nurse] v
1: try to cure by special care of treatment, of an illness or injury; "He nursed his cold with Chinese herbs"
2: maintain (a theory, thoughts, or feelings); "bear a grudge"; "entertain interesting notions"; "harbor a resentment" [syn: harbor, harbour, hold, entertain, nurse]
3: serve as a nurse; care for sick or handicapped people
4: treat carefully; "He nursed his injured back by lying in bed several hours every afternoon"; "He nursed the flowers in his garden and fertilized them regularly"
5: give suck to; "The wetnurse suckled the infant"; "You cannot nurse your baby in public in some places" [syn: breastfeed, suckle, suck, nurse, wet-nurse, lactate, give suck] [ant: bottlefeed]

Merriam Webster's

biographical name Sir Paul Maxime 1949- British geneticist

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English norice, norce, nurse, from Anglo-French nurice, from Late Latin nutricia, from Latin, feminine of nutricius nourishing — more at nutritious Date: 13th century 1. a. a woman who suckles an infant not her own ; wet nurse b. a woman who takes care of a young child ; dry nurse 2. one that looks after, fosters, or advises 3. a person who cares for the sick or infirm; specifically a licensed health-care professional who practices independently or is supervised by a physician, surgeon, or dentist and who is skilled in promoting and maintaining health — compare licensed practical nurse, registered nurse 4. a. a worker form of a social insect (as an ant or a bee) that cares for the young b. a female mammal used to suckle the young of another II. verb (nursed; nursing) Etymology: Middle English nurshen to suckle, nourish, contraction of nurishen Date: 14th century transitive verb 1. a. to nourish at the breast ; suckle b. to take nourishment from the breast of 2. rear, educate 3. a. to promote the development or progress of b. to manage with care or economy <nursed the business through hard times> <nursed a 1-0 lead> c. to take charge of and watch over 4. a. to care for and wait on (as a sick person) b. to attempt to cure by care and treatment 5. to hold in one's memory or consideration <nurse a grievance> 6. a. to use, handle, or operate carefully so as to conserve energy or avoid injury or pain <nurse a sprained ankle> b. to use sparingly c. to consume slowly or over a long period <nurse a cup of coffee> intransitive verb 1. a. to feed an offspring from the breast b. to feed at the breast ; suck 2. to act or serve as a nurse • nurser noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 a person trained to assist doctors in caring for the sick or infirm. 2 a person employed or trained to take charge of young children. 3 archaic = wet-nurse. 4 Forestry a tree planted as a shelter to others. 5 Zool. a sexually imperfect bee, ant, etc., caring for a young brood; a worker. --v. 1 a intr. work as a nurse. b tr. attend to (a sick person). c tr. give medical attention to (an illness or injury). 2 tr. & intr. feed or be fed at the breast. 3 tr. (in passive; foll. by in) be brought up in (a specified condition) (nursed in poverty). 4 tr. hold or treat carefully or caressingly (sat nursing my feet). 5 tr. a foster; promote the development of (the arts, plants, etc.). b harbour or nurture (a grievance, hatred, etc.). c pay special attention to (nursed the voters). 6 tr. Billiards keep (the balls) together for a series of cannons. Etymology: reduced f. ME and OF norice, nurice f. LL nutricia fem. of L nutricius f. nutrix -icis f. nutrire NOURISH

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Nurse Nurse, v. 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's 1913 Dictionary

Nurse Nurse, n. [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. (Zo["o]l.) (a) A peculiar larva of certain trematodes which produces cercari[ae] by asexual reproduction. See Cercaria, and Redia. (b) Either one of the nurse sharks. Nurse shark. (Zo["o]l.) (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.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Redia Re"di*a (r?"d?*?), n.; pl. L. Redi[ae] (-[=e]), E. Redias (-?z). [NL.; of uncertain origin.] (Zo["o]l.) A kind of larva, or nurse, which is prroduced within the sporocyst of certain trematodes by asexual generation. It in turn produces, in the same way, either another generation of redi[ae], or else cercari[ae] within its own body. Called also proscolex, and nurse. See Illustration in Appendix.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(nurses, nursing, nursed) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. A nurse is a person whose job is to care for people who are ill. She had spent 29 years as a nurse... Patients were dying because of an acute shortage of nurses. N-COUNT; N-TITLE; N-VOC 2. If you nurse someone, you care for them when they are ill. All the years he was sick my mother had nursed him... She rushed home to nurse her daughter back to health. VERB: V n, V n back to n 3. If you nurse an illness or injury, you allow it to get better by resting as much as possible. We're going to go home and nurse our colds. VERB: V n 4. If you nurse an emotion or desire, you feel it strongly for a long time. Jane still nurses the pain of rejection... He had nursed an ambition to lead his own big orchestra. = harbour VERB: V n, V n 5. When a baby nurses or when its mother nurses it, it feeds by sucking milk from its mother's breast. (OLD-FASHIONED) Most authorities recommend letting the baby nurse whenever it wants. ...young women nursing babies... Young people and nursing mothers are exempted from charges. = suckle VERB: V, V n, V-ing 6. see also nursery nurse, nursing, wet nurse

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. 1. Nourish, nurture, supply with nourishment. 2. Suckle, feed at the breast, give suck to, nourish at the breast. 3. Cherish, foster, encourage, succor, promote, foment, fester, feed, pamper. 4. Tend in sickness, care for, take care of, attend upon. 5. Manage, economize. 6. Caress, fondle, dandle. 7. Rear, nurture, bring up.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

To cheat: as, they nursed him out of it. An estate in the hands of trustees, for the payment of bdebts, is said to be at nurse.

Foolish Dictionary

One who keeps setting up the drinks after you're all in.

Moby Thesaurus

LPN, RN, advance, aliment, amah, apprentice, attend, attend to, ayah, baby, baby-sit, bandage, bathe, bear, bosom, break, break in, breast-feed, breed, bring up, care for, chaperon, charge nurse, cherish, cling to, clip, coddle, condition, conserve, cosset, cradle, cultivate, cure, develop, diagnose, discipline, district nurse, doctor, drill, dry nurse, dry-nurse, embosom, embrace, entertain, exercise, fatten, fatten up, feed, fetch up, fit, flux, fondle, force-feed, form, forward, foster, further, give care to, graduate nurse, groom, harbor, have, have and hold, heal, hold, hold on to, house-train, housebreak, hug, humor, improve, indulge, keep, keep alive, keep watch over, lactate, lavish care on, licensed practical nurse, lick into shape, look after, look out for, look to, mammy, massage, matronize, mind, minister to, mother, nanny, nourish, nursemaid, nurserymaid, nursing sister, nurture, nutrify, operate on, pamper, physic, plaster, poultice, practical nurse, practice, prepare, preserve, private-duty nurse, probationer, probationist, probe, promote, protege, provide for, public health nurse, purge, put in tune, put to school, raise, ready, rear, registered nurse, rehearse, remedy, ride herd on, rub, school nurse, scrub nurse, see after, see to, send to school, shepherd, sister, sitter, splint, spoon-feed, strap, student nurse, stuff, suckle, support, surgical nurse, sustain, take care of, take charge of, take in hand, tend, train, trained nurse, treasure, treasure up, treat, visiting nurse, wait on, watch, watch out for, watch over, wet nurse, wet-nurse