nurse
//nɜːs//
Forms
- Plural
- nurses
- present (v1)
- nurse
- past (v2)
- nursed
- past participle (v3)
- nursed
- present participle
- nursing
- 3rd person singular
- nurses
Definitions
1.A person involved in providing direct care for the sick:
- The nurse made her rounds through the hospital ward.
- 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".
4.A shrub or tree that protects a young plant.
1.To breastfeed: to feed (a baby) at the breast; to suckle.
- She believes that nursing her baby will make him strong and healthy.
2.To breastfeed: to be fed at the breast.
3.To care for (someone), especially in sickness; to tend to.
- She nursed him back to health.
4.To tend gently and with extra care.
- She nursed the rosebush and that season it bloomed.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #2033
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
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”).