1. (n.) One who nourishes; a person who supplies food, tends, or brings up; as: (a) A woman who has the care of young children; especially, one who suckles an infant not her own. (b) A person, especially a woman, who has the care of the sick or infirm.

2. (n.) One who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow, trains, fosters, or the like.

3. (n.) A lieutenant or first officer, who is the real commander when the captain is unfit for his place.

4. (n.) A peculiar larva of certain trematodes which produces cercariae by asexual reproduction. See Cercaria, and Redia.

5. (n.) Either one of the nurse sharks.

6. (v. t.) To nourish; to cherish; to foster

7. (v. t.) To nourish at the breast; to suckle; to feed and tend, as an infant.

8. (v. t.) To take care of or tend, as a sick person or an invalid; to attend upon.

9. (v. t.) To bring up; to raise, by care, from a weak or invalid condition; to foster; to cherish; -- applied to plants, animals, and to any object that needs, or thrives by, attention.

10. (v. t.) To manage with care and economy, with a view to increase; as, to nurse our national resources.

11. (v. t.) To caress; to fondle, as a nurse does.

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