nurse

Noun

1. (informal) A person involved in providing direct care for the sick:
2. A person involved in providing direct care for the sick:
3. A person involved in providing direct care for the sick:
4. A person (usually a woman) who takes care of other people’s children.
5. (figuratively) One who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow, trains, or fosters.
6. A shrub or tree that protects a young plant.
7. A lieutenant or first officer who takes command when the captain is unfit for his place.
8. A larva of certain trematodes, which produces cercariae by asexual reproduction.
9. (archaic) A wet nurse.

Verb

1. (transitive) To breastfeed: to feed (a baby) at the breast; to suckle.
2. (intransitive) To breastfeed: to be fed at the breast.
3. (transitive) To care for (someone), especially in sickness; to tend to.
4. (transitive) To tend gently and with extra care.
5. (transitive) To manage or oversee (something) with care and economy.
6. (informal, transitive) To drink (a beverage) slowly, so as to make it last.
7. (figuratively, transitive) To cultivate or persistently entertain (an attitude, usually negative) in one's mind; to brood or obsess over.
8. (transitive) To hold closely to one's chest.
9. (transitive) To strike (billiard balls) gently, so as to keep them in good position during a series of shots.

Pronounced as (IPA)

/nɜːs/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: norice

In summary

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”).

Synonyms

suckle

care for

doctor

🧑‍⚕️

breastfeed

nanny

look after

tend

breast-feed

suck

treat

nurture

wet-nurse

cherish

take care of

nursemaid

attend

give suck

entertain

wet nurse

tend to

foster

midwife

give medicine to

feed

attendant

hold

care

harbour

cure

sister

👩‍👧

mind

minder

minister

lactate

attend to

keeper

dry-nurse

breast feed

superintendent

raise

coddle

service

orderly

governess

overseer

babysitter

carer

maintain

medicate

healer

Translations

infirmière

infirmier

Krankenschwester

infermiera

enfermera

téter

soigner

allaiter

enfermeira

verpleegster

pielęgniarka

allattare

enfermero

infermiere

stillen

Sentences

When he was in hospital , the nurse took an x-ray photograph of his arm .