Nurse

/nɜːs/ name, noun, verb, slang

name, noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level

Definitions

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

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

  2. 2
    A nurse shark or dogfish.
  3. 3
    a woman who is the custodian of children wordnet
  4. 4
    A person involved in providing direct care for the sick:; 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."

  5. 5
    one skilled in caring for young children or the sick (usually under the supervision of a physician) wordnet
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  1. 6
    A person involved in providing direct care for the sick:; A medical worker, such as a registered nurse, having training, credentials, and rank above a nurse assistant.
  2. 7
    A person (usually a woman) who takes care of other people’s children.

    "They hired a nurse to care for their young boy."

  3. 8
    One who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow, trains, or fosters. figuratively

    "Eton College has been called "the chief nurse of England's statesmen"."

  4. 9
    A shrub or tree that protects a young plant.
  5. 10
    A lieutenant or first officer who takes command when the captain is unfit for his place.
  6. 11
    A larva of certain trematodes, which produces cercariae by asexual reproduction.
  7. 12
    A wet nurse. archaic
Verb
  1. 1
    To breastfeed: to feed (a baby) at the breast; to suckle. transitive

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

  2. 2
    try to cure by special care of treatment, of an illness or injury wordnet
  3. 3
    To breastfeed: to be fed at the breast. intransitive
  4. 4
    give suck to wordnet
  5. 5
    To care for (someone), especially in sickness; to tend to. transitive

    "She nursed him back to health."

Show 9 more definitions
  1. 6
    maintain (a theory, thoughts, or feelings) wordnet
  2. 7
    To tend gently and with extra care. transitive

    "She nursed the rosebush and that season it bloomed."

  3. 8
    treat carefully wordnet
  4. 9
    To manage or oversee (something) with care and economy. transitive
  5. 10
    serve as a nurse; care for sick or handicapped people wordnet
  6. 11
    To drink (a beverage) slowly, so as to make it last. informal, transitive

    "Rob was nursing a small beer."

  7. 12
    To cultivate or persistently entertain (an attitude, usually negative) in one's mind; to brood or obsess over. figuratively, transitive

    "to nurse a grudge"

  8. 13
    To hold closely to one's chest. transitive

    "Would you like to nurse the puppy?"

  9. 14
    To strike (billiard balls) gently, so as to keep them in good position during a series of shots. transitive

    "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"

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.

Synonyms

All synonyms
nannyadvancealimentamahapprenticeattend

Example

More examples

"The nurse took his temperature with a thermometer."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English norice, from Old French norrice, from Late Latin nūtrīcia, noun based on Latin nūtrīcius (“that which nourishes”), from nūtrīx (“wet nurse”), from nūtriō (“to suckle”).

Etymology 2

Uncertain; earlier (16th century) nusse, nuse. Perhaps from huss, through metanalysis of "an huss" as "a nuss".

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