(the title given to) a person whose job is to care for people who are ill or injured, especially in a hospital:
He worked as a nurse in a psychiatric hospital.
Nurse Millard will be with you shortly.
[ as form of address ] Thank you, Nurse.
a woman employed to take care of a young child or children
to care for a person or an animal while they are ill:
He gave up his job so that he could nurse his mother at home.
They found an injured cat and carefully nursed it back to health (= until it was well again).
to spend a lot of time taking care of something as it grows or develops:
These young trees were carefully nursed by the head gardener.
The project will have to be nursed through its first few months.
If you nurse an illness or injury, you rest until it gets better:
Robert's in bed nursing a back injury.
to hold a small child in your arms as a way of making them feel better:
She nursed the crying child on her lap.
When a woman nurses a baby, she feeds it with milk from her breasts.
to have a strong feeling or an emotion for a long time:
She had long nursed a passion for Japanese art.
to hold a drink for a long time without drinking it:
Mark was sitting in the corner nursing an almost empty bottle of beer.
a person trained to care for people who are ill or not able to care for themselves because of injury or old age, and who may also help doctors in treating people:
The hospital has at least five nurses on duty in the pediatrics ward all the time.
to feed a baby from the breast, or of a baby, to drink from a woman’s breast:
[ I/T ] I’m planning to nurse (the baby) for at least three months.
to make something continue to exist:
Oklahoma was nursing a 7–3 lead over Texas with two minutes left.
to care for people who are sick or cannot care for themselves because of injury or old age:
After my mother’s operation, she stayed with us for a while until we nursed her back to health.
If you nurse an injury, you rest it to help it get better:
Robert stayed home today, nursing a bad back.