dry nurse
noun
a nurse who takes care of but does not breast-feed another's infant.
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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:
"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
Consequently I was the more surprised at the disrespectful superciliousness of their Fidus Achates or dry nurse, who, stretching himself upon his stomach in the prow, did shout counsels of perfection at his receding pupils.
From Baboo Jabberjee, B.A. by F. Anstey
I am not going to dry nurse him.
From Gallipoli Diary, Volume 2 by Sir Ian Hamilton
After the child had been weaned it was fed by the dry nurse and the mother with pap, made chiefly of honey.
From Museum of Antiquity A Description of Ancient Life by T. L. (Thomas Louis) Haines
I ain’t a child put out to dry nurse, I ain’t!”
From Fritz and Eric The Brother Crusoes by John C. (John Conroy) Hutcheson
As Walderhurst is short of female relatives, it would have fallen to me to decently dry-nurse you.
From Emily Fox-Seton Being "The Making of a Marchioness" and "The Methods of Lady Walderhurst" by C. D. (Charles D.) Williams
"What else besides being dry-nurse to the king of the Amalekites?"
From Jimgrim and Allah's Peace by Talbot Mundy
And now it had been of little use to take a dry-nurse in her place, for Andree did not cease shrieking from morning till night.
From Fruitfulness by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly
In one sit the servants And band of musicians, Most busily playing; The second one groans 140 'Neath a mountainous wet-nurse, Who dandles a baby, A withered old dry-nurse, A motionless body Of ancient retainers.
From Who Can Be Happy and Free in Russia? by Juliet M. Soskice
Seems like you’ll have to appoint a dry-nurse to look after the poor baby, or else he may freeze to death in the night.”
From The Boy Scouts in the Maine Woods The New Test for the Silver Fox Patrol by Herbert Carter
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
"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
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
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
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
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
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
"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
"Since when have you been dry-nursing rustlers?" snarled Rafe.
From The Rider of Golden Bar by William Patterson White
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.
