from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
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.
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Sons wont to nurse their parents in old age.
--Milton.
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Him in Egerian groves Aricia bore,
And nursed his youth along the marshy shore.
--Dryden.
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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.
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By what hands [has vice] been nursed into so
uncontrolled a dominion? --Locke.
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3. To manage with care and economy, with a view to increase;
as, to nurse our national resources.
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4. To caress; to fondle, as a nurse does. --A. Trollope.
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{To nurse billiard balls}, to strike them gently and so as to
keep them in good position during a series of caroms.
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