dry nurse
noun
a nurse who takes care of but does not breast-feed another's infant.
dry nurse
1 Americannoun
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a nurse who takes care of but does not breast-feed another's infant.
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Informal. a person who tutors and guides an inexperienced person at work.
dry-nurse
2
American
[drahy-nurs]
/ ˈdraɪˌnɜrs /
verb (used with object)
dry-nursed,
dry-nursing
dry nurse
British
noun
verb
Etymology
Origin of dry nurse1
First recorded in 1590–1600
Origin of dry-nurse2
First recorded in 1575–85
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:
Tom Crauford had the master’s child to dry nurse: he was only two years old: Tom let him fall, not intentionally, but the poor child was a cripple in consequence of it for life.
From Frank Mildmay Or, the Naval Officer by Frederick Marryat
"Where's yore dry nurse Dingwell?" broke in the ex-convict bitterly.
From The Sheriff's Son by William MacLeod Raine
"Good Heaven!" thought Hamilton, "is it not enough to be dry nurse to a nation?"
From The Conqueror by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton
"Clap on here, Peg," cried the woman to another, "and let's have this little midshipmite; I wants a baby to dry nurse."
From Peter Simple; and, The Three Cutters, Vol. 1-2 by Frederick Marryat
I seem to need a dry nurse quite as much as my children.
From Julia Ward Howe 1819-1910 by Maud Howe Elliott
I’m not going to drive bullocks, or dry-nurse a flock of sheep, for any man.
From Lost Lenore The Adventures of a Rolling Stone by Charles A. Beach
Pitt had compared Robinson to a jack-boot; but personal opinions vary according to points of view; Sir Thomas might be contemptible as a leader, but useful as a dry-nurse.
From Lord Chatham His Early Life and Connections by Archibald Phillip Primrose Rosebery
You are doomed to dry-nurse Martin for life, whether he wants you or no.
From An Unknown Lover by Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey
I am not going to dry-nurse a girl at the age of fifty-four.
From Emily Fox-Seton Being "The Making of a Marchioness" and "The Methods of Lady Walderhurst" by C. D. (Charles D.) Williams
And then the procession, The three little Barins, The wet-nurse, the dry-nurse, 240 The ancient retainers, The woolly white poodles, Moves onward to lunch.
From Who Can Be Happy and Free in Russia? by Juliet M. Soskice
"I mean, didn't she try to get them dry-nursed by the sirkar in some way?"
From King of the Khyber Rifles by Talbot Mundy
One can't afford to cuddle an old vendetta, as Abishag dry-nursed old King David.
From A Woman Named Smith by Marie Conway Oemler
Mr. Houghton has dry-nursed what father left me, and he has done mighty well with it; but I can't touch it till I'm twenty-five—worse luck!
From The Vehement Flame by Margaret Wade Campbell Deland
In Paris, Rheims, and Aix, where they are wholly dry-nursed, their deaths are 50.3, 63.9, and 80 per cent.
From The Physical Life of Woman: Advice to the Maiden, Wife and Mother by George H. (George Henry) Napheys
Was't some sullen bear dry-nursed thee, Or she-dragon gave thee suck?
From Wit and Wisdom of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
"I'm not specially keen on dry-nursing Dan McGrew," Jim remarked plaintively.
From The Shooting of Dan McGrew, A Novel Based on the Famous Poem of Robert Service by Marvin Hill Dana
Ned said that the Company was able to walk by itself at last, and that he was going to have a long holiday after his dry-nursing of it.
From The Irrational Knot Being the Second Novel of His Nonage by Bernard Shaw
But, if he nursed his passion, it was a dry-nursing; for he led a lonely, ascetic, and, if it were not for his studies, we might say a savage life.
From The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch by Thomas Campbell
"Since when have you been dry-nursing rustlers?" snarled Rafe.
From The Rider of Golden Bar by William Patterson White
This was careful dry-nursing for the bantling which had been provided with so comfortable a cradle in the State Department.
From James Madison by Sydney Howard Gay
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.
