Nurse
Pronunciation
- RP IPA: /nÉœËs/
- GenAm IPA: /nÉs/
- Rhymes: -ÉœË(ɹ)s
Origin
Variant form of the archaic nourice, from Old French norrice, from Latin nutricius ("that nourishes"), from nutrix ("wet nurse"), from nutrire ("to suckle").
Full definition of nurse
Noun
nurse
(plural nurses)- (archaic) A wet-nurse.
- A person (usually a woman) who takes care of other people’s young.They hired a nurse to care for their young boy
- A person trained to provide care for the sick.The nurse made her rounds through the hospital ward
- One who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow, trains, fosters, or the like.
- Burkethe nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise
- (nautical) A lieutenant or first officer who takes command when the captain is unfit for his place.
- A larva of certain trematodes, which produces cercariae by asexual reproduction.
- A nurse shark.
Usage notes
Some speakers consider nurses (medical workers) to be female by default, and thus use "male nurse" to refer to a man doing the same job.
Verb
- to breast feedShe believes that nursing her baby will make him strong and healthy.
- to care for the sickShe nursed him back to health.
- to treat kindly and with extra careShe nursed the rosebush and that season it bloomed.
- to drink slowly
- to foster, to nourish
- to hold closely to one's chestWould you like to nurse the puppy?
- to strike (billiard balls) gently, so as to keep them in good position during a series of shots
- 1866, United States. Congress. Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, Supplemental report of the Joint CommitteeIt 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.
Usage notes
In sense “to drink slowlyâ€, generally negative and particularly used for someone at a bar, suggesting they either cannot afford to buy another drink or are too miserly to do so. By contrast, sip is more neutral.
Synonyms
- (drink slowly) sip, see also