nerve

UK/nɜːv/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/nəːv/

nerve noun: a bundle of neurons with their connective tissue sheaths, blood vessels and lymphatics.

Noun

nerve (plural nerves)

A bundle of neurons with their connective tissue sheaths, blood vessels and lymphatics.
- The nerves can be seen through the skin.
- Like her I go; I cannot stay;
  ⁠I leave this mortal ark behind,
  A weight of nerves without a mind,
  And leave the cliffs, and haste away […]1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC
(colloquial, nonstandard) A neuron.
A vein in a leaf; a grain in wood.
- Some plants have ornamental value because of their contrasting nerves.
Courage; boldness; audacity; gall.
- He had the nerve to enter my house uninvited.
- He hasn't the nerve to tell her he likes her.
Synonyms:

brashness, brazenness, balls, audacity, bield, boldhead, boldness, bravehood, valor, braveness
Patience; stamina; endurance, fortitude.
- The web-team found git-sed is really a time and nerve saver when doing mass changes on your repositories
- He led me on to mightiest deeds, / Above the nerve of mortal arm.1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, pages 42–43...
(in plural) One's neural structures considered collectively as, and conceptually equated with, one's psyche.
- All these rationalizations for asinine behavior are getting on my nerves.
- His nerves could no longer handle the worry.
(in plural) Mental agitation caused by fear, stress or other negative emotions.
- Ellie had a bad case of nerves before the big test; she was a bundle of nerves.
- Put me in the hospital for nerves and then they had to commit me1997, Harvey Danger, “Flagpole Sitta”, in Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone?
(polymer technology) The elastic resistance of raw rubber or other polymers to permanent deformation during processing.
- The nerviness (ability to recover quickly from strain or stretching) ... generally requires it to be broken down or masticated on the mill before the other compounding ingredients are added. In the break-down operation, heat is inherently generated by the sheer action of the milling or mixing...1959, Newell A Perry, Eric O Ridgway, US patent US2870103 Ahttps://www.google.com/patents/US2870103
(obsolete) Sinew, tendon.
- Come on; obey: / Thy nerves are in their infancy again, / And have no vigour in them.1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
- Whilst thus their fury rages at the bay,
  My sword our cables cut, I call'd to weigh,
  And charg'd my men, as they from fate would fly,
  Each nerve to strain, each bending oar to ply.1725, Homer, “Book X”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume III, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC
A particular simplicial set constructed from a category.

Verb

nerve (third-person singular simple present nerves, present participle nerving, simple past and past participle nerved)

(transitive) To give courage.
- May their example nerve us to face the enemy.
- The yellow-bearded Mailey, the old warrior, scarred with many combats and eager for more, stood beside his wife, the gentle squire who bore his weapons and nerved his arm.1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019
Synonyms:

nerve up
(transitive) To give strength; to supply energy or vigour.
- The liquor nerved up several of the men after their icy march.
- The shock nerved her, and she ran aimlessly till she fell, and for a time lay, but making a barrier of her arms, that the child should not be crushed.1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 289
Synonyms:

nerve up, anneal, brace, consolidate, build up, confirm, corroborate, enstrengthen, fortify, harden
(informal, transitive) To perform a neurectomy on (someone or something).
- She has been trying everything (wedge pads, bar shoes, etc.) and he is still dead lame. Someone has suggested nerving him, which (I believe - correct me if I am wrong!) involves cutting the main nerve in his foot so he can be ridden without pain.1993 January 8, Penny E. Breyer, “Net wisdom needed on nerving”, in rec.equestrian (Usenet), archived from the original on 21 Aug 2025
- You can't nerve a hoof and I didn't realize that the cannon bone where the nerving takes place is not part of the leg.1999 June 18, CJ, “Advice for horse that keeps mouth open & runs through the bit?”, in rec.equestrian (Usenet), archived from the original on 21 Aug 2025
(informal, rare, transitive) To get on (someone’s) nerves; to annoy, irritate, or bother (someone).
- I guess, my previous message never came in the net..so again: (hope, i don't nerve anyone) We want to combine different LAN's via fiberoptic cable (Monomode) to the Internet.1996 July 1, Tuennes, “FDDI or Ethernet or what?”, in comp.dcom.lans.ethernet (Usenet), archived from the original on 21 Aug 2025
- No way was I assured, but after that the doctor refused to answer anymore questions. Instead, he wouldn’t stop nerving me to give him a guided tour of the berserker.2024, Michael Kobzan, “Return to The Berserker”, in John Dunley, →ISBN
(informal, intransitive, rare) To be nervous.
- Mathias slowly leads his hand down to the holster... yeah, cool steel... his fingers wrap around the grip of his Smith & Wesson's, dragging it out, aiming and... In other words: Stop nerving, damiac14!1997 May 8, Mathias Schiffer, “Damiac14's Page Updated, and improved!”, in comp.lang.basic.visual.misc (Usenet), archived from the original on 21 Aug 2025
- use the extrapolar solution, don't nerve.1998 December 24, TUTonNO, “REM Thieves?- a hint”, in alt.my.head.hurts (Usenet), archived from the original on 21 Aug 2025

nerve meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

nerve in Hindi

bundle of neurons: नस nas, तंत्रिका tantrikā

nerve in Urdu

bundle of neurons: عَصَب 'asab, نَس nas

nerve in Bengali

bundle of neurons: স্নায়ু snaẏu

More languagesFewer languages

nerve in Telugu: నరము naramu
nerve in Malayalam: ഞരമ്പ് ñarampŭ, നാഡി nāḍi
nerve in Kannada: ನರ nara
nerve in Punjabi: ਤੰਤੂ
nerve in Gujarati: ચેતાતંતુ cetātantu, જ્ઞાનતંતુ jñāntantu
nerve in Odia: ସ୍ନାଯ଼ୁ, ତନ୍ତ୍ରିକା
nerve in Sanskrit: नाडी nāḍī, स्नायु snāyu
nerve in Assamese: স্নায়ু snayu
nerve in Nepali: तन्त्रिका, स्नायु
nerve in Pashto: عَصَب 'asab
nerve in Tagalog: dagandam, nerbiyos, nerbyos, kagitingan
nerve in Arabic: عَصَب ʕaṣab
nerve in Malay: saraf
nerve in Indonesian: saraf
nerve in Thai: เส้นประสาท sên-bprà-sàat, ประสาท bprà-sàat
nerve in Vietnamese: thần kinh
nerve in Myanmar: အာရုံကြော arumkrau:

Examples of nerve in a sentence

You have the nerve, the – the –” I saw she needed helping out.1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XVIII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:
You got a lot of nerve / To say you are my friend / When I was down / You just stood there grinning1965, Bob Dylan, “Positively 4th Street”:
A trip to the whistling, fire-cracking Stadio San Paolo is always a test of nerve but Wenger's men have already outplayed the Italians once.2013 November 26, Daniel Taylor, The Guardian:
An object of this invention is to reduce the inherent nerve of ... polymers ... during break-down.1959, Newell A Perry, Eric O Ridgway, US patent US2870103 Ahttps://www.google.com/patents/US2870103

All 40 example sentences with nerve

Synonyms of nerve

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All synonyms of nerve

Forms of nerve

Noun
plural	nerves
Verb
third-person singular present	nerves
present participle	nerving
past participle	nerved
past	nerved

Plural of nerve: nerves

Origin of nerve

Recorded since circa 1374 as Middle English nerve, from Medieval Latin nervus (“nerve”), from Latin nervus (“sinew”). Doublet of neuron and sinew. Verb sense 4 (“to get on (someone’s) nerves”) is chiefly a semantic loan from German nerven.

Words formed from nerve

Phrases with nerve

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Words that rhyme with nerve

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Questions about nerve

What does nerve mean?: Nerve means a bundle of neurons with their connective tissue sheaths, blood vessels and lymphatics.
What is nerve in Hindi?: Nerve in Hindi is नस (nas), तंत्रिका (tantrikā). See Nerve meaning in Hindi.
How do you use nerve in a sentence?: You have the nerve, the – the –” I saw she needed helping out.
What part of speech is nerve?: Nerve can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce nerve?: Nerve is pronounced /nɜːv/ (UK).
What is the plural of nerve?: The plural of nerve is nerves.

Words near nerve in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: nerve (page history and authors); ഞരമ്പ് (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ನರ (Kannada) (page history and authors); nerve (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nerve (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nerve (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-nerve.ogg.

Cite this entry: “nerve.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nerve. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.