Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

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.

Shark \Shark\, n. [Of uncertain origin; perhaps through OF. fr.
   carcharus a kind of dogfish, Gr. karchari`as, so called from
   its sharp teeth, fr. ka`rcharos having sharp or jagged teeth;
   or perhaps named from its rapacity (cf. {Shark}, v. t. & i.);
   cf. Corn. scarceas.]
   1. (Zo["o]l.) Any one of numerous species of elasmobranch
      fishes of the order Plagiostomi, found in all seas.

   Note: Some sharks, as the basking shark and the whale shark,
         grow to an enormous size, the former becoming forty
         feet or more, and the latter sixty feet or more, in
         length. Most of them are harmless to man, but some are
         exceedingly voracious. The man-eating sharks mostly
         belong to the genera {Carcharhinus}, {Carcharodon}, and
         related genera. They have several rows of large sharp
         teeth with serrated edges, as the great white shark
         ({Carcharodon carcharias, or Rondeleti}) of tropical
         seas, and the great blue shark ({Carcharhinus glaucus})
         of all tropical and temperate seas. The former
         sometimes becomes thirty-six feet long, and is the most
         voracious and dangerous species known. The rare
         man-eating shark of the United States coast
         ({Charcarodon Atwoodi}) is thought by some to be a
         variety, or the young, of {C. carcharias}. The dusky
         shark ({Carcharhinus obscurus}), and the smaller blue
         shark ({C. caudatus}), both common species on the coast
         of the United States, are of moderate size and not
         dangerous. They feed on shellfish and bottom fishes.

   2. A rapacious, artful person; a sharper. [Colloq.]

   3. Trickery; fraud; petty rapine; as, to live upon the shark.
      [Obs.] --South.

   {Baskin shark}, {Liver shark}, {Nurse shark}, {Oil shark},
   {Sand shark}, {Tiger shark}, etc. See under {Basking},
      {Liver}, etc. See also {Dogfish}, {Houndfish},
      {Notidanian}, and {Tope}.

   {Gray shark}, the sand shark.

   {Hammer-headed shark}. See {Hammerhead}.

   {Port Jackson shark}. See {Cestraciont}.

   {Shark barrow}, the eggcase of a shark; a sea purse.

   {Shark ray}. Same as {Angel fish}
      (a), under {Angel}.

   {Thrasher} shark, or {Thresher shark}, a large, voracious
      shark. See {Thrasher}.

   {Whale shark}, a huge harmless shark ({Rhinodon typicus}) of
      the Indian Ocean. It becomes sixty feet or more in length,
      but has very small teeth.

Source : WordNet®

nurse shark
     n : small bottom-dwelling shark of warm shallow waters on both
         coasts of North America and South America and from
         southeast Asia to Australia [syn: {Ginglymostoma cirratum}]