- Nursed
- Nurse Nurse, 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]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
