nurse (nûrs)n.1. A person trained to provide medical care for the sick or disabled, especially one who is licensed and works in a hospital or physician’s office.2. a. A person employed to take care of a young child.b. A woman employed to suckle children other than her own; a wet nurse.3. One that serves as a nurturing or fostering influence or means: “Town life is the nurse of civilization” (C.L.R. James).4. Zoology A worker ant or bee that feeds and cares for the colony’s young.v. nursed, nurs·ing, nurs·es v.tr.1. To serve as a nurse for: nursed the patient back to health.2. To cause or allow to take milk from the breast or teat: a mother nursing her baby; whales nursing their young.3. To try to cure by special care or treatment: nurse a cough with various remedies.4. To treat carefully, especially in order to prevent pain: He nursed his injured knee by shifting his weight to the other leg.5. To manage or guide carefully; look after with care; foster: nursed her business through the depression. See Synonyms at nurture.6. To bear privately in the mind: nursing a grudge.7. To consume slowly, especially in order to conserve: nursed one drink all evening.v.intr.1. To serve as a nurse.2. a. To take milk from the breast or teat; suckle: The baby is nursing. Puppies nurse for a few weeks.b. To feed an offspring from the breast or teat: a mother who’s nursing; what to feed cows when they’re nursing.[Middle English norice, nurse, wet nurse, from Old French norrice, from Vulgar Latin *nutr?cia, from Late Latin n?tr?cia, from feminine of Latin n?tr?cius, that suckles, from n?tr?x, n?tr?c-, wet nurse; see (s)n?u- in Indo-European roots.]nurs?er n.American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.nurse (n??s) n1. (Medicine) a person who tends the sick, injured, or infirm2. short for nursemaid3. a woman employed to breast-feed another woman’s child; wet nurse4. (Zoology) a worker in a colony of social insects that takes care of the larvaevb (mainly tr) 5. (Medicine) (also intr) to tend (the sick)6. (also intr) to feed (a baby) at the breast; suckle7. to try to cure (an ailment)8. to clasp carefully or fondly: she nursed the crying child in her arms. 9. (also intr) (of a baby) to suckle at the breast (of)10. to look after (a child) as one’s employment11. to attend to carefully; foster, cherish: he nursed the magazine through its first year; having a very small majority he nursed the constituency diligently. 12. to harbour; preserve: to nurse a grudge. 13. (Billiards & Snooker) billiards to keep (the balls) together for a series of cannons[C16: from earlier norice, Old French nourice, from Late Latin n?tr?cia nurse, from Latin n?tr?cius nourishing, from n?tr?re to nourish]Nurse (n??s) n (Biography) Sir Paul (Maxime). born 1949, English cell biologist and geneticist; winner (2001), with LH Hartwell and RT Hunt, of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or MedicineCollins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014nurse (n?rs) n., v. nursed, nurs?ing. n. 1. a person formally educated and trained in the care of the sick or infirm, esp. a registered nurse. 2. a woman who has the general care of a child or children. 3. wet nurse. 4. a worker that attends the young in a colony of social insects. v.t. 5. to tend in sickness, infirmity, etc. 6. to try to cure (an ailment) by taking care of oneself: to nurse a cold. 7. to suckle (an infant). 8. to handle carefully or fondly. 9. to use, consume, or dispense slowly or carefully: to nurse a cup of tea. 10. to keep steadily in mind: He nursed a grudge. 11. to feed and tend in infancy. 12. to bring up, train, or nurture. v.i. 13. to suckle a child, esp. one’s own. 14. (of a child) to suckle. 15. to act as nurse; tend the sick or infirm. [1350?1400; Middle English, variant of n(o)urice, norice