n. [ Cf. Knur. ] A hard knot in wood; also, a hard knob of wood used by boys in playing hockey. [ 1913 Webster ]

I think I'm as hard as a nur, and as tough as whitleather. W. Howitt. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ ‖n.; It. pl. -ghi /plu>. Also etc. } [ It. dial. (Sardinia) nuraghe). ] One of the prehistoric towerlike structures found in Sardinia.

The so-called nuraghi, conical monuments with truncated summits, 30-60 ft. in height, 35-100 ft. in diameter at the base, constructed sometimes of hewn, and sometimes of unhewn blocks of stone without mortar. They are situated either on isolated eminences or on the slopes of the mountains, seldom on the plains, and usually occur in groups. They generally contain two (in some rare instances three) conically vaulted chambers, one above the other, and a spiral staircase constructed in the thick walls ascends to the upper stories. Baedeker. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Nurled p. pr. & vb. n. Nurling. ] [ Cf. Knurl. ] To cut with reeding or fluting on the edge of, as coins, the heads of screws, etc.; to knurl. [ 1913 Webster ]

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 ]