nurse

nurse
    n 1: one skilled in caring for young children or the sick
         (usually under the supervision of a physician)
    2: a woman who is the custodian of children [syn: {nanny},
       {nursemaid}, {nurse}]
    v 1: try to cure by special care of treatment, of an illness or
         injury; "He nursed his cold with Chinese herbs"
    2: maintain (a theory, thoughts, or feelings); "bear a grudge";
       "entertain interesting notions"; "harbor a resentment" [syn:
       {harbor}, {harbour}, {hold}, {entertain}, {nurse}]
    3: serve as a nurse; care for sick or handicapped people
    4: treat carefully; "He nursed his injured back by lying in bed
       several hours every afternoon"; "He nursed the flowers in his
       garden and fertilized them regularly"
    5: give suck to; "The wetnurse suckled the infant"; "You cannot
       nurse your baby in public in some places" [syn: {breastfeed},
       {suckle}, {suck}, {nurse}, {wet-nurse}, {lactate}, {give
       suck}] [ant: {bottlefeed}]
    

Nurse \Nurse\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Nursed}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Nursing}.]
   1. To nourish; to cherish; to foster; as:
      (a) To nourish at the breast; to suckle; to feed and tend,
          as an infant.
      (b) To take care of or tend, as a sick person or an
          invalid; to attend upon.
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                Sons wont to nurse their parents in old age.
                                                  --Milton.
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                Him in Egerian groves Aricia bore,
                And nursed his youth along the marshy shore.
                                                  --Dryden.
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   2. To bring up; to raise, by care, from a weak or invalid
      condition; to foster; to cherish; -- applied to plants,
      animals, and to any object that needs, or thrives by,
      attention. "To nurse the saplings tall." --Milton.
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            By what hands [has vice] been nursed into so
            uncontrolled a dominion?              --Locke.
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   3. To manage with care and economy, with a view to increase;
      as, to nurse our national resources.
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   4. To caress; to fondle, as a nurse does. --A. Trollope.
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   {To nurse billiard balls}, to strike them gently and so as to
      keep them in good position during a series of caroms.
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Nurse \Nurse\ (n[^u]rs), n. [OE. nourse, nurice, norice, OF.
   nurrice, norrice, nourrice, F. nourrice, fr. L. nutricia
   nurse, prop., fem. of nutricius that nourishes; akin to
   nutrix, -icis, nurse, fr. nutrire to nourish. See {Nourish},
   and cf. {Nutritious}.]
   1. One who nourishes; a person who supplies food, tends, or
      brings up; as:
      (a) A woman who has the care of young children;
          especially, one who suckles an infant not her own.
      (b) A person, especially a woman, who has the care of the
          sick or infirm.
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   2. One who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow,
      trains, fosters, or the like.
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            The nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise.
                                                  --Burke.
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   3. (Naut.) A lieutenant or first officer, who is the real
      commander when the captain is unfit for his place.
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   4. (Zool.)
      (a) A peculiar larva of certain trematodes which produces
          cercariae by asexual reproduction. See {Cercaria}, and
          {Redia}.
      (b) Either one of the nurse sharks.
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   {Nurse shark}. (Zool.)
      (a) A large arctic shark ({Somniosus microcephalus}),
          having small teeth and feeble jaws; -- called also
          {sleeper shark}, and {ground shark}.
      (b) A large shark ({Ginglymostoma cirratum}), native of
          the West Indies and Gulf of Mexico, having the dorsal
          fins situated behind the ventral fins.

   {To put to nurse}, or {To put out to nurse}, to send away to
      be nursed; to place in the care of a nurse.

   {Wet nurse}, {Dry nurse}. See {Wet nurse}, and {Dry nurse},
      in the Vocabulary.
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Redia \Re"di*a\ (r?"d?*?), n.; pl. L. {Rediae} (-[=e]), E.
   {Redias} (-?z). [NL.; of uncertain origin.] (Zool.)
   A kind of larva, or nurse, which is prroduced within the
   sporocyst of certain trematodes by asexual generation. It in
   turn produces, in the same way, either another generation of
   rediae, or else cercariae within its own body. Called also
   {proscolex}, and {nurse}. See Illustration in Appendix.
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156 Moby Thesaurus words for "nurse":
      LPN, RN, advance, aliment, amah, apprentice, attend, attend to,
      ayah, baby, baby-sit, bandage, bathe, bear, bosom, break, break in,
      breast-feed, breed, bring up, care for, chaperon, charge nurse,
      cherish, cling to, clip, coddle, condition, conserve, cosset,
      cradle, cultivate, cure, develop, diagnose, discipline,
      district nurse, doctor, drill, dry nurse, dry-nurse, embosom,
      embrace, entertain, exercise, fatten, fatten up, feed, fetch up,
      fit, flux, fondle, force-feed, form, forward, foster, further,
      give care to, graduate nurse, groom, harbor, have, have and hold,
      heal, hold, hold on to, house-train, housebreak, hug, humor,
      improve, indulge, keep, keep alive, keep watch over, lactate,
      lavish care on, licensed practical nurse, lick into shape,
      look after, look out for, look to, mammy, massage, matronize, mind,
      minister to, mother, nanny, nourish, nursemaid, nurserymaid,
      nursing sister, nurture, nutrify, operate on, pamper, physic,
      plaster, poultice, practical nurse, practice, prepare, preserve,
      private-duty nurse, probationer, probationist, probe, promote,
      protege, provide for, public health nurse, purge, put in tune,
      put to school, raise, ready, rear, registered nurse, rehearse,
      remedy, ride herd on, rub, school nurse, scrub nurse, see after,
      see to, send to school, shepherd, sister, sitter, splint,
      spoon-feed, strap, student nurse, stuff, suckle, support,
      surgical nurse, sustain, take care of, take charge of,
      take in hand, tend, train, trained nurse, treasure, treasure up,
      treat, visiting nurse, wait on, watch, watch out for, watch over,
      wet nurse, wet-nurse