Definition of "nurse"

nurse¹

/nɜːs/

noun
plural nurses
1. (archaic) A wet nurse.
2. A person (usually a woman) who takes care of other people’s young.
3. A person trained to provide care for the sick.
  Quotations
  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.
  1990, Andrew Davies, Michael Dobbs, House of Cards, season 1, episode 4
4. (figurative) One who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow, trains, or fosters.
  Quotations
  the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise
  1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […]
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
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.
2. (intransitive) To breastfeed: to be fed at the breast.
3. (transitive) To care for (someone), especially in sickness; to tend to.
4. (transitive) To treat kindly and with extra care.
5. (transitive) To manage with care and economy.
6. (transitive) To drink slowly, to make it last.
7. (transitive) To foster, to nourish.
  Quotations
  If, like me, you have been confined to your home, glued to the news and nursing ever greater anxiety about the state of the world, you have probably become familiar with the sight of the World Health Organization’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and his daily press briefings.
  2020 April 10, Stephen Buranyi, “The WHO v coronavirus: why it can't handle the pandemic”, in The Guardian‎
8. To hold closely to one's chest
9. (billiards, transitive) To strike (billiard balls) gently, so as to keep them in good position during a series of shots.
  Quotations
  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
  1866, United States. Congress. Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, Supplemental report of the Joint Committee

nurse²

/nɜːs/

noun
plural nurses
1. A nurse shark or dogfish.

Definition of "nurse"

nurse1

noun

Quotations

Quotations

verb

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Quotations

nurse2

noun

nurse¹

nurse²