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:
In answer to this, Archie reminded his friend that on this occasion Jack Stuart would have the advantage of an excellent dry nurse, acknowledged to do very great on such occasions.
From The Claverings by Anthony Trollope
I say, old Voules, I thought he was going to cut you altogether; but perhaps he’ll honour you by giving that yelping pup of his into your charge to dry nurse.
From The Rival Crusoes by William Henry Giles Kingston
"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
You will dry nurse him till some day he is able to understand you.
From Letters of Two Brides by Honoré de Balzac
I seem to need a dry nurse quite as much as my children.
From Julia Ward Howe 1819-1910 by Maud Howe Elliott
Say, had the Court no better place to choose For thee, than make a dry-nurse of thy Muse?
From Life And Letters Of John Gay (1685-1732) by Lewis Melville
I don't envy Hignett if he has to dry-nurse the Gnome's commander.
From Traffics and Discoveries by Rudyard Kipling
At last, however, she relented, and concluded to remain on earth as dry-nurse to Mr. Bassett.
From A Terrible Temptation A Story of To-Day by Charles Reade
Brighteye listened intently to the faint, unmistakable family noises issuing therefrom, and then, like a thoughtful dry-nurse, went off to find for his mate a tender white root of horse-tail grass.
From Creatures of the Night A Book of Wild Life in Western Britain by Alfred Wellesley Rees
Sir Charles did not approve this: it seemed unreasonable to turn a wet-nurse into a dry-nurse when that office was already occupied by a person her senior and more experienced.
From A Terrible Temptation A Story of To-Day by Charles Reade
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
"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
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
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
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
"Since when have you been dry-nursing rustlers?" snarled Rafe.
From The Rider of Golden Bar by William Patterson White
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
"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
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.
