nurse
See also: Nurse
Contents
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Variant form of the archaic nourice, from Old French norrice, from Latin nūtrīcius (“that nourishes”), from nūtrīx (“wet nurse”), from nūtriō (“to suckle”).
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /nɜːs/
- (General American) IPA(key): /nɝs/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)s
Noun[edit]
nurse (plural nurses)
- (archaic) A wet-nurse.
- A person (usually a woman) who takes care of other people’s young.
- They hired a nurse to care for their young boy
- A person trained to provide care for the sick.
- The nurse made her rounds through the hospital ward
- 1990, 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.
- Francis Urquhart: Right. Mackenzie. Health. No chance of getting him into a demo at a hospital, I suppose?
- One who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow, trains, fosters, or the like.
- Burke
- the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise
- Burke
- (horticulture) A shrub or tree that protects a young plant.
- (nautical) A lieutenant or first officer who takes command when the captain is unfit for his place.
- A larva of certain trematodes, which produces cercariae by asexual reproduction.
- A nurse shark.
Usage notes[edit]
- 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[edit]
Descendants[edit]
Descendants
Translations[edit]
wet nurse — see wet nurse
person who takes care of other people's young
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person trained to provide care for the sick
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Verb[edit]
nurse (third-person singular simple present nurses, present participle nursing, simple past and past participle nursed)
- to breastfeed
- She believes that nursing her baby will make him strong and healthy.
- to care for the sick
- She nursed him back to health.
- to treat kindly and with extra care
- She nursed the rosebush and that season it bloomed.
- to drink slowly
- to foster, to nourish
- to hold closely to one's chest
- Would you like to nurse the puppy?
- 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.
- 1866, United States. Congress. Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, Supplemental report of the Joint Committee
Usage notes[edit]
In sense “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.
Synonyms[edit]
- (drink slowly): sip, see also Thesaurus:drink
Translations[edit]
to breast feed
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to care for the sick
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to treat kindly and with extra care
See also[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- nurse in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- nurse in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
- nurse at OneLook Dictionary Search
Nurse in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.
Anagrams[edit]
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from Old French
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with archaic senses
- en:Horticulture
- en:Nautical
- English verbs
- en:Babies
- en:Breastfeeding
- en:Healthcare occupations
- en:People
