Word.ws English Dictionary

nourishing

nourishing is the present participle and gerund 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

nourishing (comparative more nourishing, superlative most nourishing)

  1. That provides nourishment; nutritious.
    • The Cleveland Clinic’s Sukol thinks the word “healthy” is confusing and should be replaced with the term “nourishing,” as some processed foods have been marketed as “healthy.”2017 May 16, Jacqueline Howard, “‘Healthy’ foods have most of us confused, survey finds”, in CNN
    Synonyms:
    solid

Synonyms of nourishing

Forms of nourishing

comparativemore nourishing
superlativemost nourishing

Words formed from nourishing

Phrases with nourishing

Questions about nourishing

What does nourishing mean?
Nourishing means that provides nourishment; nutritious.
What is nourishing the present participle and gerund of?
Nourishing is the present participle and gerund of nourish.
What part of speech is nourishing?
Nourishing is an adjective.

Words near nourishing in the dictionary

  1. nourishers
  2. nourishes
  3. nourishes a viper in one's bosom
  4. nourishest
  5. nourisheth
  6. nourishing
  7. nourishing a viper in one's bosom
  8. nourishingly
  9. nourishingness
  10. nourishment
  11. nourishments

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nourishing (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: “nourishing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nourishing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.