nurse

noun
/nɜːs/UK/nɵːs//nɝs/US

Etymology

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”).

  1. derived from nūtrīcius
  2. derived from nūtrīcia
  3. derived from norrice
  4. inherited from norice

Definitions

  1. A person involved in providing direct care for the sick

    A person involved in providing direct care for the sick:

    • My aunt was my nurse while I recuperated at home from surgery.
  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. 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".
    • the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise
  4. + 14 more definitions
    1. A shrub or tree that protects a young plant.

    2. A lieutenant or first officer who takes command when the captain is unfit for his place.

    3. A larva of certain trematodes, which produces cercariae by asexual reproduction.

    4. A wet nurse.

    5. To breastfeed

      To breastfeed: to feed (a baby) at the breast; to suckle.

      • She believes that nursing her baby will make him strong and healthy.
    6. To care for (someone), especially in sickness

      To care for (someone), especially in sickness; to tend to.

      • She nursed him back to health.
    7. To tend gently and with extra care.

      • She nursed the rosebush and that season it bloomed.
    8. To manage or oversee (something) with care and economy.

    9. To drink (a beverage) slowly, so as to make it last.

      • Rob was nursing a small beer.
    10. To cultivate or persistently entertain (an attitude, usually negative) in one's mind

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

      • to nurse a grudge
      • to nurse a grievance
    11. To hold closely to one's chest.

      • Would you like to nurse the puppy?
    12. To strike (billiard balls) gently, so as to keep them in good position during a series of…

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

      • 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
    13. A nurse shark or dogfish.

    14. A surname.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at nurse. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01nurse02rears03rear04hind05doe06nanny

A definitional loop anchored at nurse. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

6 hops · closes at nurse

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA