definition of nurse by The Free Dictionary

nurse ?(n?rs)n.

1. A person trained to provide medical care for the sick or disabled, especially one who is licensed
and works in a hospital or physician's office.

2.

a. A person employed to take care of a young child.

b. A woman employed to suckle children other than her own; a wet nurse.

3. One that serves as a nurturing or fostering influence or means: "Town life is the nurse of
civilization" (C.L.R. James).

4. Zoology A worker ant or bee that feeds and cares for the colony's young.

v. nursed, nurs?ing, nurs?es

v.tr.

1. To serve as a nurse for: nursed the patient back to health.

2. To cause or allow to take milk from the breast or teat: a mother nursing her baby; whales nursing
their young.

3. To try to cure by special care or treatment: nurse a cough with various remedies.
4. To treat carefully, especially in order to prevent pain: He nursed his injured knee by shifting his
weight to the other leg.

5. To manage or guide carefully; look after with care; foster: nursed her business through the
depression. See Synonyms at nurture.

6. To bear privately in the mind: nursing a grudge.

7. To consume slowly, especially in order to conserve: nursed one drink all evening.

v.intr.

1. To serve as a nurse.

2.

a. To take milk from the breast or teat; suckle: The baby is nursing. Puppies nurse for a few weeks.

b. To feed an offspring from the breast or teat: a mother who's nursing; what to feed cows when
they're nursing.

[Middle English norice, nurse, wet nurse, from Old French norrice, from Vulgar Latin *nutr?cia, from
Late Latin n?tr?cia, from feminine of Latin n?tr?cius, that suckles, from n?tr?x, n?tr?c-, wet nurse;
see (s)n?u- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]

nurs?er n.

nurse (n?:s) n

1. (Medicine) a person who tends the my review here sick, injured, or infirm

3. a woman employed to breast-feed another woman's child; wet nurse

4. (Zoology) a worker in a colony of social insects that takes care of the larvae

vb (mainly tr)

5. (Medicine) (also intr) to tend (the sick)

6. (also intr) to feed (a baby) at the breast; suckle

7. to try to cure (an ailment)

8. to clasp carefully or fondly: she nursed the crying child in her arms.

9. (also intr) (of a baby) to suckle at the breast (of)

10. to look after (a child) as one's employment

11. to attend to carefully; foster, cherish: he nursed the magazine through its first year; having a
very small majority he nursed the constituency diligently.
12. to harbour; preserve: to nurse a grudge.

13. (Billiards & Snooker) billiards to keep (the balls) together for a series of cannons

[C16: from earlier norice, Old French nourice, from Late Latin n?tr?cia nurse, from Latin n?tr?cius
nourishing, from n?tr?re to nourish]

Nurse (n?:s) n

(Biography) Sir Paul (Maxime). born 1949, English cell biologist and geneticist; winner (2001), with
LH Hartwell and RT Hunt, of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine

nurse (n?rs)

n., v. nursed, nursoing. n.

1. a person formally educated and trained in the care of the sick or infirm, esp. a registered nurse.

2. a woman who has the general care of a child or children.

4. a worker that attends the young in a colony of social insects.

v.t.

5. to tend in sickness, infirmity, etc.

6. to try to cure (an ailment) by taking care of oneself: to nurse a cold.

7. to suckle (an infant).

8. to handle carefully or fondly.

9. to use, consume, or dispense slowly or carefully: to nurse a cup of tea.

10. to keep steadily in mind: He nursed a grudge.

11. to feed and tend in infancy.

12. to bring up, train, or nurture.

v.i.

13. to suckle a child, esp. one's own.

14. (of a child) to suckle.

15. to act as nurse; tend the sick or infirm.

[1350-1400; Middle English, variant of n(o)urice, noricen?tr?cia, n. use of feminine of Latin n?tr?cius
nutritious]
nurs?er, n.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/nurse