(n.) 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.
(n.) One who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow,
trains, fosters, or the like.
(n.) A lieutenant or first officer, who is the real commander
when the captain is unfit for his place.
(n.) A peculiar larva of certain trematodes which produces
cercariae by asexual reproduction. See Cercaria, and Redia.
(n.) Either one of the nurse sharks.
(v. t.) To nourish; to cherish; to foster
(v. t.) To nourish at the breast; to suckle; to feed and tend, as
an infant.
(v. t.) To take care of or tend, as a sick person or an invalid;
to attend upon.
(v. t.) 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.
(v. t.) To manage with care and economy, with a view to increase;
as, to nurse our national resources.
(v. t.) To caress; to fondle, as a nurse does.
