nurse

== English == === Alternative forms === norice, nourice, nourse (all obsolete) === Pronunciation === enPR: nûrs (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /nɜːs/ (Standard Southern British) IPA(key): /nɵːs/, /nəːs/ (weak vowel merger) (General American) IPA(key): /nɝs/ (Northumbria) IPA(key): /nɔːs/ Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)s === Etymology 1 === 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”). ==== Noun ==== nurse (plural nurses) A person involved in providing direct care for the sick: (informal) Anyone performing this role, regardless of training or profession. A medical worker performing this role, typically someone trained to provide such care but having credentials and rank below a doctor or physician assistant. (healthcare) 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. (figurative) One who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow, trains, or fosters. (horticulture) A shrub or tree that protects a young plant. (nautical) 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. (archaic) A wet nurse. ===== Usage notes ===== Some speakers consider nurses (medical workers) to be female by default, and thus use the term male nurse to refer to a man performing the same job. ===== Derived terms ===== ===== Descendants ===== ===== Translations ===== ==== Verb ==== nurse (third-person singular simple present nurses, present participle nursing, simple past and past participle nursed) (transitive) To breastfeed: to feed (a baby) at the breast; to suckle. (intransitive) To breastfeed: to be fed at the breast. (transitive) To care for (someone), especially in sickness; to tend to. (transitive) To tend gently and with extra care. (transitive) To manage or oversee (something) with care and economy. Synonym: husband (transitive, informal) To drink (a beverage) slowly, so as to make it last. (transitive, figuratively) To cultivate or persistently entertain (an attitude, usually negative) in one's mind; to brood or obsess over. Synonyms: dwell on, feed, harbor (transitive) To hold closely to one's chest. (transitive, billiards) To strike (billiard balls) gently, so as to keep them in good position during a series of shots. ===== Usage notes ===== In etymology 1 sense 6 "to drink slowly", generally negative and particularly used for someone at a bar, suggesting they either cannot afford to buy another drink or are too miserly to do so. By contrast, sip is more neutral. ===== Derived terms ===== ===== Translations ===== ==== Synonyms ==== (drink slowly): sip; see also Thesaurus:drink ==== See also ==== matron sister ==== Further reading ==== “nurse”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC. William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “nurse”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC. “nurse”, in OneLook Dictionary Search. Nurse in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911) === Etymology 2 === Uncertain; earlier (16th century) nusse, nuse. Perhaps from huss, through metanalysis of "an huss" as "a nuss". ==== Noun ==== nurse (plural nurses) A nurse shark or dogfish. ===== Derived terms ===== grey nurse grey nurse shark nurse shark === Anagrams === Nuers, Suren, Unser, runes, urnes == French == === Etymology === Borrowed from English nurse, itself derived from Old French norrice. Doublet of nourrice. === Noun === nurse f (plural nurses) (dated) nanny ==== Descendants ==== → Romanian: nursă === References === “nurse”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012 == Middle English == === Noun === nurse alternative form of norice