'Nurse' definitions:

Definition of 'nurse'

From: WordNet
noun
One skilled in caring for young children or the sick (usually under the supervision of a physician)
noun
A woman who is the custodian of children [syn: nanny, nursemaid, nurse]
verb
Try to cure by special care of treatment, of an illness or injury; "He nursed his cold with Chinese herbs"
verb
Maintain (a theory, thoughts, or feelings); "bear a grudge"; "entertain interesting notions"; "harbor a resentment" [syn: harbor, harbour, hold, entertain, nurse]
verb
Serve as a nurse; care for sick or handicapped people
verb
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"
verb
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]

Definition of 'Nurse'

From: GCIDE
  • Nurse \Nurse\ (n[^u]rs), 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. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. One who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow, trains, fosters, or the like. [1913 Webster]
  • The nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise. --Burke. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. (Naut.) A lieutenant or first officer, who is the real commander when the captain is unfit for his place. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. (Zool.) (a) A peculiar larva of certain trematodes which produces cercariae by asexual reproduction. See Cercaria, and Redia. (b) Either one of the nurse sharks. [1913 Webster]
  • Nurse shark. (Zool.) (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. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Nurse'

From: GCIDE
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • Sons wont to nurse their parents in old age. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
  • Him in Egerian groves Aricia bore, And nursed his youth along the marshy shore. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • By what hands [has vice] been nursed into so uncontrolled a dominion? --Locke. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. To manage with care and economy, with a view to increase; as, to nurse our national resources. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. To caress; to fondle, as a nurse does. --A. Trollope. [1913 Webster]
  • To nurse billiard balls, to strike them gently and so as to keep them in good position during a series of caroms. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'nurse'

From: GCIDE
  • Redia \Re"di*a\ (r?"d?*?), n.; pl. L. Rediae (-[=e]), E. Redias (-?z). [NL.; of uncertain origin.] (Zool.) 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 rediae, or else cercariae within its own body. Called also proscolex, and nurse. See Illustration in Appendix. [1913 Webster]

Synonyms of 'nurse'

From: Moby Thesaurus