nurse

plural nurses · alternative obsolete norice · alternative obsolete nourice · alternative obsolete nourse

1. A person involved in providing direct care for the sick:
   1. informalAnyone performing this role, regardless of training or profession.

      My aunt was my nurse while I recuperated at home from surgery.

   2. A medical worker performing this role, typically someone trained to provide such care but having credentials and rank below a doctor or physician assistant.

      The nurse made her rounds through the hospital ward.

      1 more example

      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

   3. governmentA medical worker, such as a registered nurse, having training, credentials, and rank above a nurse assistant.
2. archaicA person (usually a woman) who takes care of other people’s children.

   They hired a nurse to care for their young boy.

3. figurativelyOne 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".

   1 more example

   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, […], →OCLC

4. agricultureA shrub or tree that protects a young plant.
5. nauticalA lieutenant or first officer who takes command when the captain is unfit for his place.
6. A larva of certain trematodes, which produces cercariae by asexual reproduction.
7. archaicA wet nurse.

present singular third person nurses · participle present nursing · participle past nursed · past nursed · alternative obsolete norice · alternative obsolete nourice · alternative obsolete nourse

1. transitiveTo breastfeed: to feed (a baby) at the breast; to suckle.

   She believes that nursing her baby will make him strong and healthy.

2. intransitiveTo breastfeed: to be fed at the breast.
3. transitiveTo care for (someone), especially in sickness; to tend to.

   She nursed him back to health.

4. transitiveTo tend gently and with extra care.

   She nursed the rosebush and that season it bloomed.

5. transitiveTo manage or oversee (something) with care and economy.

   Synonyms: husband

6. informaltransitiveTo drink (a beverage) slowly, so as to make it last.

   Rob was nursing a small beer.

   Synonyms: sip

7. figurativelytransitiveTo cultivate or persistently entertain (an attitude, usually negative) in one's mind; to brood or obsess over.

   to nurse a grudge

   2 more examples

   to nurse a grievance

   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

   Synonyms: dwell on, feed, harbor

8. transitiveTo hold closely to one's chest.

   Would you like to nurse the puppy?

9. transitiveball gamesTo strike (billiard balls) gently, so as to keep them in good position during a series of shots.

   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

plural nurses · alternative obsolete norice · alternative obsolete nourice · alternative obsolete nourse

1. A nurse shark or dogfish.

plural Nurses

1. A surname.