nurture

American  

[nur-cher] / ˈnɜr tʃər /

verb (used with object)

nurtured, nurturing

1. to feed and protect.

   to nurture one's offspring.

2. to support and encourage, as during the period of training or development; foster.

   to nurture promising musicians.

3. to bring up; train; educate.

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noun

1. rearing, upbringing, training, education, or the like.

2. development.

   the nurture of young artists.

3. something that nourishes; nourishment; food.

nurture British  

/ ˈnɜːtʃə /

noun

1. the act or process of promoting the development, etc, of a child

2. something that nourishes

3. biology the environmental factors that partly determine the structure of an organism See also nature

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verb

1. to feed or support

2. to educate or train

Related Words

See nurse.

Other Word Forms

• nurturable adjective
• nurtureless adjective
• nurturer noun
• unnurtured adjective
• well-nurtured adjective

Etymology

Origin of nurture

First recorded in 1300–50; (noun) Middle English norture, from Middle French, variant of nourriture, from Late Latin nūtrītūra “a nourishing,” equivalent to Latin nūtrīt(us) (past participle of nūtrīre “to feed”) + -ūra noun suffix; nourish, -ure; (verb) derivative of the noun

Example Sentences

“In an era where we’re all so online, it was reassuring and felt nurturing. It’s good evidence of how much film culture means to people.”

From Los Angeles Times

Sakamoto said her coach had told her that she could "nurture a future gold medallist. So maybe you’ll see me as a coach at the Olympics."

From Barron's

London Fashion Week, better known for nurturing new talent than for its big-name shows, kicks off on Thursday with a tribute to one of its stalwarts Paul Costelloe.

From Barron's

Many of the other children come from similar economic backgrounds, but all nurture big ambitions for the future.

From BBC

It underwrites the sorts of elite cultural and educational institutions that Alexis de Tocqueville and others believed an egalitarian democracy would have difficulty nurturing.

From The Wall Street Journal