different between nurse vs nurture

English

Alternative forms

• nourice (archaic)
• norice (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English norice, from Old French norrice, from Latin n?tr?cius (“that nourishes”), from n?tr?x (“wet nurse”), from n?tri? (“to suckle”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /n??s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /n?s/
• Rhymes: -??(?)s

Noun

nurse (plural nurses)

1. (archaic) A wet nurse.
2. A person (usually a woman) who takes care of other people’s young.

3. A person trained to provide care for the sick.
   • 1990, Andrew Davies, Michael Dobbs, House of Cards, Season 1, Episode 4

     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.

4. (figuratively) One who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow, trains, or fosters.
   • 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France

     the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise

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.
8. A nurse shark.

Usage notes

• Some speakers consider nurses (medical workers) to be female by default, and thus use "male nurse" to refer to a man doing the same job.

Derived terms

• nurse practitioner
• snotty's nurse
• wet nurse, wet-nurse

Descendants

Translations

Verb

nurse (third-person singular simple present nurses, present participle nursing, simple past and past participle nursed)

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. to treat kindly and with extra care

   She nursed the rosebush and that season it bloomed.

5. to manage with care and economy

   Synonym: husband

6. to drink slowly, to make it last

   Rob was nursing a small beer.

7. to foster, to nourish
8. to hold closely to one's chest

   Would you like to nurse the puppy?

9. (billiards) To strike (billiard balls) gently, so as to keep them in good position during a series of shots.
   • 1866, United States. Congress. Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, Supplemental report of the Joint Committee

     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

Usage notes

In sense “to drink slowly”, generally negative and particularly used for someone at a bar, suggesting they either cannot afford to buy another drink or are too miserly to do so. By contrast, sip is more neutral.

Synonyms

• (drink slowly): sip, see also Thesaurus:drink

Translations

See also

• matron
• sister

Further reading

• nurse in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• nurse in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• nurse at OneLook Dictionary Search
• Nurse in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• Nuers, Suren, Unser, runes, urnes

Middle English

Noun

nurse

1. Alternative form of norice

English

Alternative forms

• nouriture (obsolete)
• nutriture (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English norture, noriture, from Old French norriture, norreture, from Late Latin nutritura (“nourishment”), from Latin nutrire (“to nourish”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n???.t???/
• Rhymes: -??(?)t??(?)

Noun

nurture (countable and uncountable, plural nurtures)

1. The act of nourishing or nursing; tender care

   Synonyms: upbringing, raising, education, training

2. That which nourishes; food; diet.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, A Veue of the Present State of Ireland

     Other great houses there be of the English in Ireland, which, through licentious conversing with the Irish, or marrying, or fostering with them or lack of meet nurture, or other such unhappy occasions, have degenerated from their ancient dignities and are now grown as Irish as O'Hanlon's breech, as the proverb there is.

3. The environmental influences that contribute to the development of an individual (as opposed to "nature").
   • 1649, John Milton, Eikonoklastes

     A man neither by nature nor by nurture wise.

Translations

Verb

nurture (third-person singular simple present nurtures, present participle nurturing, simple past and past participle nurtured)

1. To nourish or nurse.
2. (figuratively, by extension) To encourage, especially the growth or development of something.
   • 2009, UNESCO, The United Nations World Water Development Report – N° 3 - 2009 – Freshwater and International Law (the Interplay between Universal, Regional and Basin Perspectives), page 10, ?ISBN

     The relationships between universal norms and specific norms nurture the development of international law.

Synonyms

• (figuratively, to encourage): See Thesaurus:nurture

Related terms

• nourish
• nourishment
• nurse
• nursery
• nurturance
• nutrient
• nutriment
• nutrition
• nutritional
• nutritious
• nutritive

Translations

Further reading

• nurture in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• nurture in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• U-turner, untruer

Middle English

Noun

nurture

1. Alternative form of norture