nurse.
A person involved in providing direct care for the sick:
Meaning & usage
A person involved in providing direct care for the sick: Anyone performing this role, regardless of training or profession.
My aunt was my nurse while I recuperated at home from surgery.
A person involved in providing direct care for the sick: A medical worker performing this role, typically someone trained to provide such care but having credentials and rank below a doctor or physician assistant.
The nurse made her rounds through the hospital ward.
A person involved in providing direct care for the sick: A medical worker, such as a registered nurse, having training, credentials, and rank above a nurse assistant.
A person (usually a woman) who takes care of other people’s children.
They hired a nurse to care for their young boy.
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".
A shrub or tree that protects a young plant.
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 wet nurse.
Where this word comes from
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”).
To breastfeed: to feed (a baby) at the breast; to suckle.
She believes that nursing her baby will make him strong and healthy.
To breastfeed: to be fed at the breast.
To care for (someone), especially in sickness; to tend to.
She nursed him back to health.
To tend gently and with extra care.
She nursed the rosebush and that season it bloomed.
To manage or oversee (something) with care and economy.
To drink (a beverage) slowly, so as to make it last.
Rob was nursing a small beer.
To cultivate or persistently entertain (an attitude, usually negative) in one's mind; to brood or obsess over.
to nurse a grudge
to nurse a grievance
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.
Where this word comes from
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”).
A nurse shark or dogfish.
Where this word comes from
Uncertain; earlier (16th century) nusse, nuse. Perhaps from huss, through metanalysis of "an huss" as "a nuss".
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.