'To put out to nurse' definitions:
Definition of 'To put out to 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]