Emily Dickinson Lexicon

NURSE, n. nuns. [Fr. nourrice, from nourrir, to nourish.]

1. A woman that has the care of infants, or a woman employed to tend the children of others.
2. A woman who suckles infants.
3. A woman that has the care of a sick person.
4. A man who has the care of the sick.
5. A person that breeds, educates or protects; hence, that which breeds, brings up or causes to grow; as, Greece, the nurse of the liberal arts.
6. An old woman; in contempt Blackmore.
7. The state of being nursed; as, to put a child to nurse. Cleaveland.
8. In composition, that which supplies food; as, a nurse-pond. Walton.

NURSE, v. tr.

1. nurs.
2. To tend, as infants; as, to nurse a child.
3. To suckle; to nourish at the breast.
4. To attend and take care of in child-bed; as, to nurse a woman in her illness.
5. To tend the sick; applied to males and females.
6. To feed; to maintain; to bring up. Is. lx.
7. To cherish; to foster; to encourage; to promote growth in. We say, to nurse a feeble animal or plant. By what hands has vice been nursed into so uncontrolled a dominion? Locke.
8. To manage with care and economy, with a view to increase; as, to nurse our national resources.

NURS'ED, pp.

Tended in infancy or sickness; nourished from the breast; maintained; cherished.

NURS'ER, n.

One that cherishes or encourages growth.

NURS'E-RY, n.

1. The place or apartment in a house appropriated to the care of children. Bacon.
2. A place where young trees are propagated for the purpose of being transplanted; a plantation of young trees. Bacon.
3. The place where any thing is fostered and the growth promoted. To see fair Padua, nursery of arts. Shak. So we say, a nursery of thieves or of rogues. Alehouses and dram-shops are the nurseries of intemperance. Christian families are the nurseries of the church on earth, as she is the nursery of the church in heaven. J. M. Mason.
4. That which forms and educates. Commerce is the nursery of seamen.
5. The act of nursing. [Little used.] Shak.
6. That which is the object of a nurse's care. Milton.

NURS'ING, ppr.

Tending; nourishing at the breast; educating; maintaining.

NURS'LING, n.

1. An infant; a child. Dryden.
2. One that is nursed. Spenser.

NURT'URE, n. [Fr. nourriture, from nourrir, to nourish.]

1. That which nourishes; food; diet. Milton.
2. That which promotes growth; education; instruction. Eph. vi.

NUR-TURE, v.t.

1. To feed; to nourish.
2. To educate; to bring or train up. He was nurtured where he was born. Walton.

NURTUR-ED, pp.

Nourished; educated; trained up.

NU'SANCE,

See NUISANCE.

NUT, n. [Sax. hnut; D. noot; G. nuss; Sw. not; Dan. nlidd; Ir. cnudh; W. cna, cnau. It seems to be allied to knot, a bunch or hard lump.]

1. The fruit of certain trees and shrubs, consisting of a hard shell inclosing a kernel. Various kinds of nuts are distinguished; as, walnut, chestnut, hazelnut, butternut.
2. In mechanics, a small cylinder or other body, with teeth or projections corresponding with the teeth or grooves of a wheel. Wilkins. Ray.
3. The projection near the eye of en anchor. Mar. Dict.
4. A small block of metal containing a concave screw, called also a burr.

NUT, v.t.

To gather nuts. Wood.

NU-TATION, n. [L. nutatio, a nodding, from nuto, to nod.]

In astronomy, a kind of tremulous motion of the axis of the earth, by which in its annual revolution it is twice inclined to the ecliptic, and as often returns to its former position. Encyc.

NUT-BREAK-ER,

See NUT-CRACKER.

NUT-BROWN, a.

Brown as a nut long kept and dried. Milton.

NUT-CRACK-ER, n.

1. An instrument for cracking nuts. Addison.
2. A bird of the genus Corvus; the nut-breaker. Pennant.

NUT'-HOOK, n.

A pole with a hook at the end to pull down boughs for gathering the nuts also, the name given to a thief that stole goods from a window by means of a hook. Shak.

NUT'MEG, n. [L. nux moschata; It. noce moscada; Port. noz moscada; Fr. muscade or noix muscade. But it may be questioned whether the last syllable in English meg, is not from L. macis, mace, the bark that envelops the nut.]

The kernel of the fruit of the Myristica moschata. This fruit is nearly a spherical drupe of the size, and somewhat of the shape of a pear. The fleshy part is of a yellowish color without, almost white within, and four or five lines in thickness, and opens into two nearly equal longitudinal valves, presenting to view the nut surrounded by its arillus, which is mace. The nut drops out and the arillus withers. The nut is oval, the shell very hard and dark-brown. This immediately envelops the kernel, which is the nutmeg as commonly sold in the shops. The tree producing this fruit grows principally in the islands of Banda, in the East Indies. It reaches the highth of twenty or thirty feet, producing numerous branches. The color of the bark of the trunk is a reddish brown; that of the young blanches a bright green. The nutmeg is an aromatic, very grateful to the taste and smell, and much used in cookery.

NU-TRI-CATION, n.

Manner of feeding or being fed. [Not in use.]

NU'TRI-ENT, a. [L. nutrio.]

Nourishing; promoting growth.

NU'TRI-ENT, n.

Any substance which nourishes by promoting the growth or repairing the waste of animal bodies. Darwin.

NU-TRIMENT'AL, a.

Having the qualities of food; alimental. Arbuthnot.

NU-TRITION, n. [L. nutritio, from nutria, to nourish.]

1. The net or process of promoting the growth or repairing the waste of animal bodies; the act or process of promoting growth in vegetables. Darwin.
2. That which nourishes; nutriment. Fixed like a plant on his peculiar spot, To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot. Pope. There is no nutrition in ardent spirits. L. Beecher.

NU-TRI'TIOUS, a.

Nourishing: promoting the growth or repairing the waste of animal bodies. Milk is very nutritious.