Wiktionary

nurse

See also: Nurse

English

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Pronunciation

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  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)s

Etymology 1

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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”).

Alternative forms

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Noun

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nurse (plural nurses)

  1. A person involved in providing direct care for the sick:
    1. (informal) Anyone 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.
      • 1990, Andrew Davies, Michael Dobbs, House of Cards, season 1, episode 4:
        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.
    3. (healthcare) A medical worker, such as a registered nurse, having training, credentials, and rank above a nurse assistant.
  2. A person (usually a woman) who takes care of other people’s children.
    They hired a nurse to care for their young boy.
  3. (figurative) One 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".
  4. (horticulture) A shrub or tree that protects a young plant.
  5. (nautical) A 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. (archaic) A wet nurse.
Usage notes
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  • 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.
Derived terms
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Descendants
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Descendants
Translations
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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To breastfeed: to feed (a baby) at the breast; to suckle.
    She believes that nursing her baby will make him strong and healthy.
  2. (intransitive) To breastfeed: to be fed at the breast.
  3. (transitive) To care for (someone), especially in sickness; to tend to.
    She nursed him back to health.
  4. (transitive) To tend gently and with extra care.
    She nursed the rosebush and that season it bloomed.
  5. (transitive) To manage or oversee (something) with care and economy.
    Synonym: husband
  7. (transitive, informal) To drink (a beverage) slowly, so as to make it last.
    Rob was nursing a small beer.
  8. (transitive, figuratively) To cultivate or persistently entertain (an attitude, usually negative) in one's mind; to brood or obsess over.
    Synonyms: dwell on, feed, harbor
    to nurse a grudge
  9. (transitive) To hold closely to one's chest.
    Would you like to nurse the puppy?
  10. (transitive, billiards) 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 Committee:
      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
Usage notes
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  • In sense 6 "to drink slowly", 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.
Translations
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Synonyms

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See also

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Further reading

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Etymology 2

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

Noun

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nurse (plural nurses)

  1. A nurse shark or dogfish.
Derived terms
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Anagrams

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Middle English

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Noun

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nurse

  1. Alternative form of norice
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