NURSE (2)

nurse (2)|noursle. Nurse, or Noursle, v.t. to bring up a child, to feed

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Nurse, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Nursed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Nursing.] 1. 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. 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 been nursed into so uncontrolled a dominion? Locke. 3. 3. To manage with care and economy, with a view to increase; as, to nurse our national resources.
4. 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.