nurse

Etymology 1

From Middle English norice, from Old French norrice, from Late Latin nūtrīcia, noun based on Latin nūtrīcius (“that which nourishes”), from nūtrīx (“wet nurse”), from nūtriō (“to suckle”).

noun

1. (archaic) A wet nurse.
2. A person (usually a woman) who takes care of other people’s young.
   They hired a nurse to care for their young boy.
3. A person trained to provide care for the sick.
   The nurse made her rounds through the hospital ward.
   Francis Urquhart: Right. Mackenzie. Health. No chance of getting him into a demo at a hospital, I suppose? Tim Stamper: Doesn't go to hospitals any more. Kept getting beaten up by the nurses... I think he has trouble getting insured now. 1990, Andrew Davies, Michael Dobbs, House of Cards, season 1, episode 4
4. (figurative) One who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow, trains, or fosters.
   Eton College has been called "the chief nurse of England's statesmen".
5. (horticulture) A shrub or tree that protects a young plant.
6. (nautical) A lieutenant or first officer who takes command when the captain is unfit for his place.
7. A larva of certain trematodes, which produces cercariae by asexual reproduction.

verb

1. (transitive) To breastfeed: to feed (a baby) at the breast; to suckle.
   She believes that nursing her baby will make him strong and healthy.
2. (intransitive) To breastfeed: to be fed at the breast.
3. (transitive) To care for (someone), especially in sickness; to tend to.
   She nursed him back to health.
4. (transitive) To treat kindly and with extra care.
   She nursed the rosebush and that season it bloomed.
5. (transitive) To manage with care and economy.
6. (transitive) To drink slowly, to make it last.
   Rob was nursing a small beer.
7. (transitive) To foster, to nourish.
   If, like me, you have been confined to your home, glued to the news and nursing ever greater anxiety about the state of the world, you have probably become familiar with the sight of the World Health Organization’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and his daily press briefings. 2020-04-10, Stephen Buranyi, “The WHO v coronavirus: why it can't handle the pandemic”, in The Guardian
8. To hold closely to one's chest
   Would you like to nurse the puppy?
9. (billiards, transitive) To strike (billiard balls) gently, so as to keep them in good position during a series of shots.
   It is to our interest to let Lee and Johnston come together, just as a billiard-player would nurse the balls when he has them in a nice place 1866, United States. Congress. Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, Supplemental report of the Joint Committee

Etymology 2

Uncertain; earlier (16th century) nusse, nuse. Perhaps from huss, through metanalysis of "an huss" as "a nuss".

noun

1. A nurse shark or dogfish.