MEANING
1. To care for someone ill or protect and develop something fragile.
2. To keep a feeling, hope, or grievance alive over time.
3. To feed an infant with milk from the breast, or take milk in this way.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- nurse a patient
- nurse a seedling
On the page
She nursed the injured bird through the night.
Nearby words
Word forms
- Base
- nurse
- Past tense
- nursed
- Past participle
- nursed
- Present participle
- nursing
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- nurse
- Present continuous
- am/is/are nursing
- Present perfect
- have/has nursed
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been nursing
- Past
- nursed
- Past continuous
- was/were nursing
- Past perfect
- had nursed
- Past perfect continuous
- had been nursing
- Future
- will nurse
- Future continuous
- will be nursing
- Future perfect
- will have nursed
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been nursing
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Primary category: literary / elevated general. Forms: nurse; nurses; nursed; nursed; nursing Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Commonness: moderately common. Third-person singular: nurses.
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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