Word.ws English Dictionary

nourished

nourished is the simple past and past participle of nourish.

Meaning of nourish

Verb

nourish (third-person singular simple present nourishes, present participle nourishing, simple past and past participle nourished)

  1. (transitive) To feed and cause to grow; to supply with food or other matter which increases weight and promotes health.
    • He planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 44:14
  2. (transitive) To support; to maintain; to be responsible for.
    • I in Ireland nourish a mighty band.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  3. (transitive) To encourage; to foster; to stimulate
    • to nourish civility
  4. (transitive) To cherish; to comfort.
    • Ye have nourished your hearts.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, James 5:5
  5. (transitive) To educate or bring up; to nurture; to promote emotional, spiritual or other non-physical growth.
    • Nourished up in the words of faith.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Timothy 4:6
  6. (intransitive) To promote growth; to furnish nutriment.
    • This type of nourishes very well.

See all 8 meanings of nourish

Adjective

nourished (comparative more nourished, superlative most nourished)

  1. fed

Forms of nourished

comparativemore nourished
superlativemost nourished

Words formed from nourished

Phrases with nourished

Questions about nourished

What does nourished mean?
Nourished means fed.
What is nourished the simple past and past participle of?
Nourished is the simple past and past participle of nourish.
What part of speech is nourished?
Nourished is an adjective.

Words near nourished in the dictionary

  1. nourices
  2. Nouris
  3. nourish
  4. nourish a viper in one's bosom
  5. nourishable
  6. nourished
  7. nourished a viper in one's bosom
  8. nourisher
  9. nourishers
  10. nourishes
  11. nourishes a viper in one's bosom

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nourished (page history and authors); nourish (page history and authors). 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.

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