nurse
Americannoun
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nurses
plural
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a person formally educated and trained in the care of the sick or infirm.
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a woman who has the general care of a child or children; dry nurse.
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a woman employed to suckle an infant; wet nurse.
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any fostering agency or influence.
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Entomology. a worker that attends the young in a colony of social insects.
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Billiards. the act of maintaining the position of billiard balls in preparation for a carom.
verb (used with object)
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nurses,
present (3rd person singular)
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nursed,
past participle, past
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nursing
present participle
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to tend or minister to in sickness, infirmity, etc.
- Antonyms:
- neglect
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to try to cure (an ailment) by taking care of oneself.
to nurse a cold.
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to look after carefully so as to promote growth, development, etc.; foster; cherish.
to nurse one's meager talents.
- Antonyms:
- neglect
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to treat or handle with adroit care in order to further one's own interests.
to nurse one's nest egg.
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to use, consume, or dispense very slowly or carefully.
He nursed the one drink all evening.
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to keep steadily in mind or memory.
He nursed a grudge against me all the rest of his life.
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to suckle (an infant).
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to feed and tend in infancy.
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to bring up, train, or nurture.
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to clasp or handle carefully or fondly.
to nurse a plate of food on one's lap.
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Billiards. to maintain the position of (billiard balls) for a series of caroms.
verb (used without object)
-
nurses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
nursed,
past participle, past
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nursing
present participle
-
to suckle a child, especially one's own.
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(of a child) to suckle.
The child did not nurse after he was three months old.
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to act as nurse; tend the sick or infirm.
noun
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a person who tends the sick, injured, or infirm
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short for nursemaid
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a woman employed to breast-feed another woman's child; wet nurse
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a worker in a colony of social insects that takes care of the larvae
verb
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(also intr) to tend (the sick)
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(also intr) to feed (a baby) at the breast; suckle
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to try to cure (an ailment)
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to clasp carefully or fondly
she nursed the crying child in her arms
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(also intr) (of a baby) to suckle at the breast (of)
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to look after (a child) as one's employment
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to attend to carefully; foster, cherish
he nursed the magazine through its first year
having a very small majority he nursed the constituency diligently
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to harbour; preserve
to nurse a grudge
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billiards to keep (the balls) together for a series of cannons
Usage
What does nurse mean? A nurse is someone who has been formally trained and educated to tend to the sick and infirm, as in The nurse double-checked the dosage of drugs the cancer patient was receiving. Related to this sense, nurse can be used to mean to tend to a person who is sick, infirm, or injured, as in The father nursed his daughter while she was sick with chickenpox. Nurse can also mean to take care of oneself to try to cure something, as in Jonah was nursing a cold last week. Nurse is also used to mean to breast-feed a baby, as in The mother cat nursed her litter of kittens. And nurse can mean to look after something carefully or to cherish something, as in Pat nursed her new company through the recession. Example: My brother went to school to be a nurse and is now working at the local hospital.
Synonym Usage
Nurse, nourish, nurture may be used almost interchangeably to refer to bringing up the young. Nurse, however, suggests attendance and service; nourish emphasizes providing whatever is needful for development; and nurture suggests tenderness and solicitude in training mind and manners.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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nursesimple
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nursessimple
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have nursedperfect
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has nursedperfect
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am nursingprogressive
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are nursingprogressive
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is nursingprogressive
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have been nursingperfect progressive
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has been nursingperfect progressive
Past
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nursedsimple
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had nursedperfect
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was nursingprogressive
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were nursingprogressive
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had been nursingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of nurse
First recorded before 1350–1400; (noun) Middle English, variant of n(o)urice, norice, from Old French, from Late Latin nūtrīcia, noun use of feminine of Latin nūtrīcius nutritious; (verb) earlier nursh (reduced form of nourish ), assimilated to the noun
Explanation
A nurse is a trained healthcare worker who takes care of sick people. To nurse is to take care of, like if you nurse a baby bird back to health. To become a nurse, you have to go to college and study subjects like anatomy and nutrition. Some nurses assist doctors and perform tasks like bathing patients, taking blood samples, or giving medication. When you use the word nurse as a verb, it means "care for," and also "breastfeed a baby." The Latin root, nutrire, means "to nourish." To nurse a drink is to drink it slowly, and to nurse an idea is to mull it over.
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:
The actor was born April 18, 1964, in Wichita, Kan. His mother was a nurse and his father a pathologist.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
According to a biography on his official website, his father was a mechanical engineer, and his mother had been a dancer before becoming a nurse during the war.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
Outside a grocery store, 60-year-old nurse Aila Heilima said she hoped the investment would "motivate young people to stay" in Muhos for work, instead of moving to bigger towns in search of job opportunities.
From Barron's ● Oct. 4, 2026
Students demanding an extra school nurse or insulation in the dining-block are likely to be disappointed.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026
“I am Miss Penelope Lumley,” she said to the nurse.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
They scheduled and attended appointments, helped coordinate transportation and childcare, communicated with doctors and nurses, and helped patients make sense of complicated medical information.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026
The people tasked with the job of finding a usable vein and securing an IV are not phlebotomists with specialized training or nurses.
From Salon ● Oct. 3, 2026
Researchers are testing new approaches to combat hospital alarm fatigue, which can overwhelm nurses and make it harder to recognize patient danger.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
The trust is also looking into 13 another cases involving former staff, including doctors, nurses and clerical workers, to establish if that access was appropriate or not.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
I counted the number of nurses on shift, the number of people who walked by, the tile squares on the floor, the number of pictures on the wall, the number of chairs.
From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson
She nursed a swollen ankle after falling in the evacuation centre.
From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026
Eleanor Nash, community ranger at Forestry England, said beaver kits were nursed for about two to three months.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026
They had been nursed back to health after being sickened by a toxic algal bloom.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2025
They don't need to: the pups will happily take turns being nursed from the same mammary gland, and this devoted and well-cared-for mother spends plenty of time with each of her many, many beloved children.
From Salon ● May 11, 2025
Maman and Auntie nursed me so well that with all the cuts I didn’t even get a fever.
From "Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti" by Frances Temple
But even if they did decide to avail of Medicaid for outpatient care or nursing home care, they should not assume that Medicaid will be available on whatever terms they expect.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026
Concern analyzes those patterns in nursing documentation and turns them into a risk score for the broader care team.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
Khadijah had insisted on nursing their newborn Aziza with her own breast milk, but Latif discovers that only a few pouches remain in the fridge and formula makes his baby sick.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
Three nursing staff are under formal investigation, while a doctor who no longer works for the trust has self-referred to the General Medical Council.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
Women had traditionally worked in fields such as teaching and nursing.
From "The War to End All Wars: World War I" by Russell Freedman
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.
