nourish
Americanverb (used with object)
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nourishes,
present (3rd person singular)
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nourished,
past participle, past
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nourishing
present participle
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to sustain with food or nutriment; supply with what is necessary for life, health, and growth.
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to cherish, foster, keep alive, etc..
He had long nourished the dream of living abroad.
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to strengthen, build up, or promote.
to nourish discontent among the workers; to nourish the arts in one's community.
- Antonyms:
- discourage
verb
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to provide with the materials necessary for life and growth
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to support or encourage (an idea, feeling, etc); foster
to nourish resentment
Usage
What does nourish mean? Nourish means to promote healthy growth—to do or provide what’s needed for someone or something to be healthy and to grow and develop. The word is most commonly used in relation to food. Healthy food nourishes us. Parents try to nourish their children by feeding them healthy foods. Sometimes, food is said to nourish more than the body, as in A warm, home-cooked meal nourishes the body and the spirit. However, nourish can be used in many other contexts, including those that don’t involve food, as in Education nourishes our minds. In the context of the growth and development of things, such as communities and relationships, nourish means to build up or promote, as in This grant is intended to nourish the local arts and culture scene. A more common synonym for this sense of the word is nurture. In all of these senses, nourish is a somewhat formal and perhaps poetic word—it usually means something loftier than feed. Less commonly, nourish can mean to cherish, foster, or keep alive, especially something abstract, like hopes or dreams. This isn’t always something positive—you can nourish a grudge, for example. The word nourished is often used as an adjective, including in terms like well nourished, poorly nourished, undernourished, and malnourished. Things that nourish can be described with the adjective nourishing. The noun nourishment can refer to the act of nourishing or to something that nourishes. Example: As a mother, it’s my job to nourish my kids physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Synonym Usage
See nurse.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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nourishernoun
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overnourishverb (used with object)
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renourishverb (used with object)
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nourishableadjective
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nourishingadjective
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self-nourishedadjective
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unnourishableadjective
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unnourishedadjective
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well-nourishedadjective
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nourishinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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nourishsimple
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nourishessimple
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have nourishedperfect
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has nourishedperfect
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am nourishingprogressive
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are nourishingprogressive
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is nourishingprogressive
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have been nourishingperfect progressive
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has been nourishingperfect progressive
Past
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nourishedsimple
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had nourishedperfect
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was nourishingprogressive
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were nourishingprogressive
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had been nourishingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of nourish
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English norisshe, from Old French noriss-, long stem of norir, from Latin nūtrīre “to feed”; see nurse, -ish 2
Explanation
When you nourish your imagination or your body, you give it what it needs to stay healthy and flourish (hey, that rhymes!). Whenever you eat a nutritious meal, you nourish your body. You can also nourish your dreams by allowing yourself to take chances and try what interests you, even if you're not sure what the outcome will be. To transform the verb nourish into an adjective, you can just add ing. Then, you can describe things that nourish you — like protein shakes or good poetry — as nourishing.
Vocabulary lists containing nourish
Motherlode: A Mother's Day Lexicon
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
"The Great Gatsby," Chapter 1 Vocabulary
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Mother's Day Words: What Mothers Do
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“They were community builders, they were people who wanted to nourish you in every way, and they were so good at it.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2026
The rhetoric we use to define how we nourish ourselves has always mattered.
From Salon ● May 7, 2026
That has been exacerbated, she said, by homeowners’ failure to comply with terms of the original permit, which required them to provide sand to cover the geotubes—sand that would naturally erode and nourish other beaches.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 8, 2026
But the father of seven said drilling new wells could take away from the well he uses to nourish his horses, chickens, barn cats and dogs.
From BBC ● Apr. 4, 2026
“I think this will nourish me,” he said.
From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
A rich stew of influences nourishes his work.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 8, 2026
Ammonium not only helps these bacteria thrive but also nourishes algae and, by extension, the creatures that depend on them.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 21, 2025
Name the powerful emotions you feel and set them aside, because unleashing your anger, outrage, disgust and so forth — as, again, with Cthulhu — only nourishes him.
From Salon ● Feb. 9, 2025
“That good food grown locally and sustainably nourishes us as people, brings us together as communities and is climate-smart.”
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 26, 2024
I like singing to the kalo, and I like that I understand how the land nourishes me.
From "Clairboyance" by Kristiana Kahakauwila
From being a child I was what you would call "well nourished".
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
It’s also her first album in more than a decade, one that maintains the neo-soul continuum she’s nourished since her multi-platinum 2000 debut, “Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds, Vol. 1.”
From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2026
“You can travel and be nourished instead of tired at the end.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 4, 2026
People in your life should make you feel safe, nourished and valued.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 25, 2026
Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart.
From " The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
On top of that, the cultural obsession with efficiency doesn’t align with a diet that views cooking as a nourishing daily ritual.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 16, 2026
Glial cells play essential supporting and nourishing roles in the brain.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 12, 2026
As long as the idea remains that property gets its purpose from those tending it, working it, nourishing it and dying on it, the film will never become a relic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
At the time, he wrote in his column for the Sunday Times that "of the arteries feeding my heart with nourishing blood, one was completely blocked and the second of three was heading that way."
From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026
They needed to know which foods were nourishing, which made you sick, and how to use others as cures.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
