v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Nursed p. pr. & vb. n. Nursing. ] 1. To nourish; to cherish; to foster; as: (a) To nourish at the breast; to suckle; to feed and tend, as an infant. (b) To take care of or tend, as a sick person or an invalid; to attend upon. [ 1913 Webster ]

Sons wont to nurse their parents in old age. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

Him in Egerian groves Aricia bore,
And nursed his youth along the marshy shore. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To bring up; to raise, by care, from a weak or invalid condition; to foster; to cherish; -- applied to plants, animals, and to any object that needs, or thrives by, attention. “To nurse the saplings tall.” Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

By what hands [ has vice ] been nursed into so uncontrolled a dominion? Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To manage with care and economy, with a view to increase; as, to nurse our national resources. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To caress; to fondle, as a nurse does. A. Trollope. [ 1913 Webster ]

To nurse billiard balls, to strike them gently and so as to keep them in good position during a series of caroms. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. nourse, nurice, norice, OF. nurrice, norrice, nourrice, F. nourrice, fr. L. nutricia nurse, prop., fem. of nutricius that nourishes; akin to nutrix, -icis, nurse, fr. nutrire to nourish. See Nourish, and cf. Nutritious. ] 1. One who nourishes; a person who supplies food, tends, or brings up; as: (a) A woman who has the care of young children; especially, one who suckles an infant not her own. (b) A person, especially a woman, who has the care of the sick or infirm. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow, trains, fosters, or the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

The nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Naut.) A lieutenant or first officer, who is the real commander when the captain is unfit for his place. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Zool.) (a) A peculiar larva of certain trematodes which produces cercariae by asexual reproduction. See Cercaria, and Redia. (b) Either one of the nurse sharks. [ 1913 Webster ]

Nurse shark. (Zool.) (a) A large arctic shark (Somniosus microcephalus), having small teeth and feeble jaws; -- called also sleeper shark, and ground shark. (b) A large shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum), native of the West Indies and Gulf of Mexico, having the dorsal fins situated behind the ventral fins. --
To put to nurse, or
To put out to nurse, to send away to be nursed; to place in the care of a nurse. --
Wet nurse,
Dry nurse. See Wet nurse, and Dry nurse, in the Vocabulary. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. fed mother's milk from the breast; -- of an infant.
Syn. -- suckled, breast-fed. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. (Zool.) See Houndfish. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. An infant considered in relation to its nurse.
Syn. -- nursling, suckling. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A girl or woman employed to attend and care for children. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A pond where fish are fed. Walton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who nurses; a nurse; one who cherishes or encourages growth. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Nurseries [ Cf. F. nourricerie. ] 1. The act of nursing. [ Obs. ] “Her kind nursery.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The place where nursing is carried on; as: (a) The place, or apartment, in a house, appropriated to the care of children. (b) A place where young of any species, plant or animal, are nourished preparatory to transfer elsewhere; especially a place where young trees, shrubs, vines, etc., are propagated for the purpose of transplanting; a plantation of young trees. (c) The place where anything is fostered and growth promoted. “Fair Padua, nursery of arts.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

Christian families are the nurseries of the church on earth, as she is the nursery of the church in heaven. J. M. Mason. [ 1913 Webster ]

(d) That which forms and educates; as, commerce is the nursery of seamen. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. That which is nursed. [ R. ] Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Nurserymen One who cultivates or keeps a nursery, or place for rearing trees, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]