Nurse, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Nursed p. pr. & vb. n. Nursing.]
1. To nourish; to cherish; to foster; as: (a) To nourish at the breast; to suckle; to feed and tend, as an infant. (b) To take care of or tend, as a sick person or an invalid; to attend upon.
Sons wont to nurse their parents in old age. --Milton.
Him in Egerian groves Aricia bore,
And nursed his youth along the marshy shore. --Dryden.
2. 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. “To nurse the saplings tall.”
By what hands [has vice] been nursed into so uncontrolled a dominion? --Locke.
3. To manage with care and economy, with a view to increase; as, to nurse our national resources.
4. To caress; to fondle, as a nurse does.
To nurse billiard balls, to strike them gently and so as to keep them in good position during a series of caroms.
◄ ►