nurse

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /nɜːs/
• (General American) IPA: /nɝs/

Alternative forms

• norice, nourice, nourse (all obsolete)

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.
4. (figurative) One who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow, trains, or fosters.
   • Eton College has been called "the chief nurse of England's statesmen".
5. (horticulture) A shrub or tree that protects a young plant.
6. (nautical) A lieutenant or first officer who takes command when the captain is unfit for his place.
7. A larva of certain trematodes, which produces cercariae by asexual reproduction.

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To breastfeed: to feed (a baby) at the breast; to suckle.
   • She believes that nursing her baby will make him strong and healthy.
2. (intransitive) To breastfeed: to be fed at the breast.
3. (transitive) To care for (someone), especially in sickness; to tend to.
   • She nursed him back to health.
4. (transitive) To treat kindly and with extra care.
   • She nursed the rosebush and that season it bloomed.
5. (transitive) To manage with care and economy.
   • Synonym: husband
6. (transitive) To drink slowly, to make it last.
   • Rob was nursing a small beer.
7. (transitive) To foster, to nourish.
8. To hold closely to one's chest
   • Would you like to nurse the puppy?
9. (billiards, transitive) To strike (billiard balls) gently, so as to keep them in good position during a series of shots.

Noun

nurse (plural nurses)

1. A nurse shark or dogfish.

Anagrams

• Nuers, Suren, Unser, runes, urnes

Noun

nurse

1. Alternative form of norice