dry nurse

== English == === Etymology === To distinguish from a wet nurse, who suckles a baby. === Noun === dry nurse (plural dry nurses) (chiefly historical) A nurse who takes care of a baby, but does not breastfeed. Coordinate term: wet nurse (nautical, slang, archaic) An inferior officer who carries on the duty on board ship, due to the captain's ignorance of seamanship. ==== Translations ==== === Verb === dry nurse (third-person singular simple present dry nurses, present participle dry nursing, simple past and past participle dry nursed) To feed, attend, and bring up without suckling. (nautical, slang, archaic) Of an inferior officer: to carry on the duty on board ship, due to the captain's ignorance of seamanship. === References === “dry nurse”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC. (nautical slang): John Camden Hotten (1873), The Slang Dictionary