Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

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.

                Sons wont to nurse their parents in old age.
                                                  --Milton.

                Him in Egerian groves Aricia bore, And nursed
                his youth along the marshy shore. --Dryden.

   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.

            By what hands [has vice] been nursed into so
            uncontrolled a dominion?              --Locke.

   3. To manage with care and economy, with a view to increase;
      as, to nurse our national resources.

   4. To caress; to fondle, as a nurse does. --A. Trollope.

   {To nurse billiard balls}, to strike them gently and so as to
      keep them in good position during a series of caroms.

Nurse \Nurse\, 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.

   2. One who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow,
      trains, fosters, or the like.

            The nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise.
                                                  --Burke.

   3. (Naut.) A lieutenant or first officer, who is the real
      commander when the captain is unfit for his place.

   4. (Zo["o]l.)
      (a) A peculiar larva of certain trematodes which produces
          cercari[ae] by asexual reproduction. See {Cercaria},
          and {Redia}.
      (b) Either one of the nurse sharks.

   {Nurse shark}. (Zo["o]l.)
      (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.

Source : WordNet®

nurse
     v 1: try to cure by special care of treatment, of an illness or
          injury; "He nursed his cold with Chinese herbs"
     2: maintain (a theory, thoughts, or feelings); "bear a grudge";
        "entertain interesting notions"; "harbor a resentment"
        [syn: {harbor}, {harbour}, {hold}, {entertain}]
     3: serve as a nurse; care for sick or handicapped people
     4: treat carefully; "He nursed his injured back by liyng in bed
        several hours every afternoon"; "He nursed the flowers in
        his garden and fertilized them regularly"
     5: give suck to; "The wetnurse suckled the infant"; "You cannot
        nurse your baby in public in some places" [syn: {breastfeed},
         {bottle-feed}, {suckle}, {suck}, {wet-nurse}, {lactate},
        {give suck}] [ant: {bottlefeed}]

nurse
     n 1: one skilled in caring for young children or the sick
          (usually under the supervision of a physician)
     2: a woman who is the custodian of children [syn: {nanny}, {nursemaid}]