NURSE

The Bible contains various allusions to the tender and confidential relation anciently subsisting between a nurse and the children she had brought up, Isa 49:22,23 1Th 2:7,8. See also the story of Rebekah, attended through life by her faithful and honored Deborah, the oak under which she was buried being called "The oak of weeping," Ge 24:59 35:8. The custom still prevails in the better families of Syria and India. Says Roberts in his Oriental Illustrations, "how often have scenes like this led my mind to the patriarchal age. The daughter is about for the first time to leave the paternal roof; the servants are all in confusion; each refers to things long gone by, each wishes to do something to attract the attention of his young mistress. One says, ‘Ah do not forget him who nursed you when an infant;’ another, ‘How often did I bring you the beautiful lotus from the distant tank. Did I not always conceal your faults?’ Then the mother comes to take leave. She weeps and tenderly embraces her, saying, ‘My daughter, I shall see you no more; forget not your mother.’ The brother enfolds his sister in his arms, and promises soon to come and see her. The father is absorbed in thought, and is only aroused by the sobs of the party. He then affectionately embraces his daughter, and tells her not to fear. The female domestics must each smell of the poor girl, and the men touch her feet. As Rebekah had her nurse to accompany her, so, at this day, the aya (nurse) who has from infancy brought up the bride goes with her to the new scene. She is her adviser, her assistant and friend, and to her will she tell all her hopes and all her fears."

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NURSE. → General scriptures concerning Ge 24:59; 35:8; Ex 2:7; Ru 4:16; 2Ki 11:2; Isa 60:4; 1Th 2:7 → Careless 2Sa 4:4

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nurse. Nurse, n. one who takes care of a child or a sick person

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Nurse (nûrs), 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. 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. 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. 3. (Naut.) A lieutenant or first officer, who is the real commander when the captain is unfit for his place.
4. 4. (Zoöl.) (a) A peculiar larva of certain trematodes which produces cercariæ by asexual reproduction. See Cercaria, and Redia. (b) Either one of the nurse sharks.
Nurse shark. (Zoöl.) (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.