nurse
/nɜːs/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/nɵːs/
nurse noun: anyone performing this role, regardless of training or profession.
Noun (1)
nurse (plural nurses)
- Anyone performing this role, regardless of training or profession.
- My aunt was my nurse while I recuperated at home from surgery.
- A medical worker performing this role, typically someone trained to provide such care but having credentials and rank below a doctor or physician assistant.
- The nurse made her rounds through the hospital ward.
- Francis Urquhart: Right. Mackenzie. Health. No chance of getting him into a demo at a hospital, I suppose?
Tim Stamper: Doesn't go to hospitals any more. Kept getting beaten up by the nurses... I think he has trouble getting insured now.1990, Andrew Davies, Michael Dobbs, House of Cards, season 1, episode 4
- A medical worker, such as a registered nurse, having training, credentials, and rank above a nurse assistant.
- A person (usually a woman) who takes care of other people’s children.
- They hired a nurse to care for their young boy.
- One who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow, trains, or fosters.
- Eton College has been called "the chief nurse of England's statesmen".
- the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC
- A shrub or tree that protects a young plant.
- A lieutenant or first officer who takes command when the captain is unfit for his place.
- A larva of certain trematodes, which produces cercariae by asexual reproduction.
- A wet nurse.
Verb
nurse (third-person singular simple present nurses, present participle nursing, simple past and past participle nursed)
- To breastfeed: to feed (a baby) at the breast; to suckle.
- She believes that nursing her baby will make him strong and healthy.
- To breastfeed: to be fed at the breast.
- To care for (someone), especially in sickness; to tend to.
- She nursed him back to health.
- To tend gently and with extra care.
- She nursed the rosebush and that season it bloomed.
- To manage or oversee (something) with care and economy.
- Synonyms:
- husband
- To drink (a beverage) slowly, so as to make it last.
- Rob was nursing a small beer.
- Synonyms:
- sip
- To cultivate or persistently entertain (an attitude, usually negative) in one's mind; to brood or obsess over.
- to nurse a grudge
- to nurse a grievance
- To hold closely to one's chest.
- Would you like to nurse the puppy?
- To strike (billiard balls) gently, so as to keep them in good position during a series of shots.
- It is to our interest to let Lee and Johnston come together, just as a billiard-player would nurse the balls when he has them in a nice place1866, United States. Congress. Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, Supplemental report of the Joint Committee
Noun (2)
nurse (plural nurses)
- A nurse shark or dogfish.
Proper noun capitalized: Nurse
Nurse (plural Nurses)
- A surname.
nurse meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
nurse in Hindi
- person trained to provide care for the sick
- नर्स nars
- to care for (the sick)
- उपचार करना upcār karnā
nurse in Tamil
- person trained to provide care for the sick
- செவிலி cevili, செவிலியர் ceviliyar
- person who takes care of other people's young
- செவிலி cevili, செவிலியர் ceviliyar
nurse in Marathi
- person trained to provide care for the sick
- नर्स narsa
nurse in Urdu
- person trained to provide care for the sick
- نَرْس nars
More languagesFewer languages
- nurse in Bengali
- নার্স narśo
- nurse in Telugu
- దాది dādi
- nurse in Malayalam
- ധാത്രി dhātri, നഴ്സ് naḻsŭ
- nurse in Kannada
- ಆರಯ್ಗ, ಆರಯ್ಗಿತ್ತಿ, ಆರೈಕೆಗಾತಿ, ಆರೈಕೆಗಾರ
- nurse in Punjabi
- ਨਰਸ
- nurse in Gujarati
- નર્સ nars
- nurse in Odia
- ଧାତ୍ରୀ dhātri, ଧାଈ dhāi
- nurse in Sanskrit
- मातृका mātṛkā
- nurse in Nepali
- नर्स nars, धाइ dhāi
- nurse in Pashto
- همشېره hamšera, نرسه narsa, خورۍ xorey, رنځورپاله ranjupāla
- nurse in Tagalog
- nars, alagaan, yaya, alaga
- nurse in Arabic
- مُمَرِّض mumarriḍ, مُمَرِّضَة mumarriḍa, ممرض mumarriḍ, أَرْضَعَ ʔarḍaʕa
- nurse in Malay
- jururawat, rawat
- nurse in Indonesian
- perawat, suster, ners, menyusui
- nurse in Thai
- พยาบาล pá-yaa-baan
- nurse in Vietnamese
- y tá, bảo mẫu, bảo mỗ
- nurse in Myanmar
- သူနာပြုဆရာမ suna-pru.hca.rama.
Examples of nurse in a sentence
- I felt a sharp prick as the nurse took a sample of blood.
- John hardly felt the needle prick his arm when the adept nurse drew blood.
- The nurse hovered her vein finder to locate the veins in the patient's body.
Synonyms of nurse
Forms of nurse
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | nurses |
| alternative form (obsolete) | norice |
| alternative form (obsolete) | nourice |
| alternative form (obsolete) | nourse |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | nurses |
| present participle | nursing |
| past participle | nursed |
| past | nursed |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Nurses |
Origin of nurse
From Middle English norice, from Old French norrice, from Late Latin nūtrīcia, noun based on Latin nūtrīcius (“that which nourishes”), from nūtrīx (“wet nurse”), from nūtriō (“to suckle”).
Uncertain; earlier (16th century) nusse, nuse. Perhaps from huss, through metanalysis of "an huss" as "a nuss".
Words formed from nurse
- grey nurse
- grey nurse shark
- nurse shark
- allonurse
- charge nurse
- community nurse
- community psychiatric nurse
- district nurse
- dry nurse
- dry-nurse
- drynurse
- flight nurse
- goodnight nurse
- graduate nurse
- hello nurse
- instrument nurse
- murse
- nit nurse
- nonnurse
- nursable
- nurse assistant
- nurse-assistant
- nurse auxiliary
- nursebot
- nursedom
- nursegirl
- nursehound
- nurse-in
- nursekeeper
- nursekin
- nurseless
- nurselet
- nurselike
- nurse log
- nursely
- nursemaid
- nurseman
- nurse merger
- nursepond
- nurse practitioner
- nurse-practitioner
- nurser
- nursery nurse
- nursetender
- nursewear
- nursie
- nursle
- nursling
- nursy
- overnurse
- practical nurse
- psychiatric nurse
- registered nurse
- scrub nurse
- sicknurse
- sick nurse
- snottie's nurse
- snotty's nurse
- staff nurse
- supernurse
Phrases with nurse
Words that rhyme with nurse
36 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- worse
- -verse
- coerce
- converse
- excurse
- immerse
- multiverse
- obverse
- terce
- terse
- amerce
- asperse
- herse
- neurodiverse
- perse
- reimburse
- transverse
- a blessing and a curse
- absterse
- accurse
- costotransverse
- demerse
- disburse
- Erse
- intertransverse
- megadiverse
- murse
- nontransverse
- pretransverse
- public purse
- recurse
- renverse
- sperse
- submerse
- subtransverse
- thurse
Questions about nurse
- What does nurse mean?
- Nurse means anyone performing this role, regardless of training or profession.
- What is nurse in Hindi?
- Nurse in Hindi is नर्स (nars), उपचार करना (upcār karnā). See Nurse meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is nurse?
- Nurse can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce nurse?
- Nurse is pronounced /nɜːs/ (UK).
- What is the plural of nurse?
- The plural of nurse is nurses.
Words near nurse in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: nurse (page history and authors); Nurse (page history and authors); దాది (Telugu) (page history and authors); ധാത്രി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); nurse (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); nurse (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); નર્સ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ଧାଈ (Odia) (page history and authors); मातृका (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); धाइ (Nepali) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-nurse.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-nurse.wav.
Cite this entry: “nurse.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nurse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.