dry nurse

See also: drynurse and dry-nurse

English

Etymology

To distinguish from a wet nurse, who suckles a baby.

Noun

dry nurse (plural dry nurses)

1. (chiefly historical) A nurse who takes care of a baby, but does not breastfeed.

   Coordinate term: wet nurse

   The family found a dry nurse to take care of the infant.

2. (nautical, slang, archaic) An inferior officer who carries on the duty on board ship, due to the captain's ignorance of seamanship.

Translations

a nurse who attends and feeds a child by hand

• Irish: banaltra f, cailín páistí m
• Portuguese: ama-seca (pt) f
• Scottish Gaelic: muime-altram f
• Slovene: pestunja (sl) f
• Spanish: ama seca f, ama de brazos f

Verb

dry nurse (third-person singular simple present dry nurses, present participle dry nursing, simple past and past participle dry nursed)

1. To feed, attend, and bring up without suckling.
2. (nautical, slang, archaic) Of an inferior officer: to carry on the duty on board ship, due to the captain's ignorance of seamanship.

References

• “dry nurse”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• (nautical slang): John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary