Emily Dickinson Lexicon

NUMPS, n.

A dolt; a blockhead. [Not used.] Parker.

NUM'SKULL, n. [numb and skull.]

A dunce; a dolt; a stupid fellow. Prior.

NUM'SKULL-ED, a.

Dull in intellect; stupid; doltish. Arbuthnot.

NUN, n.¹ [Sax. nunne; Dan. nunne; D. non; G. nonne; Sw. nunna; Fr. nonne.]

A woman devoted to a religious life, and who lives in a cloister or nunnery, secluded from the world, under a vow of perpetual chastity.

NUN, n.²

1. A web-footed fowl of the size of a duck, with a white head and neck. Dict.
2. The blue titmouse. Sherwood.

NUN'CHION, n.

A portion of food taken between meals. [qu. from noon, or a corruption of luncheon.] Ainsworth.

NUN'CIA-TURE, n. [See Nuncio.]

The office of a nuncia. Clarendon.

NUN'CIO, n. [It. nunzio, from L. nuncius, messenger.]

1. An embassador from the pope to some Catholic prince or state, or who attends some congress or assembly as the pope's representative. Encyc.
2. A messenger; one who brings intelligence. Shak.

NUN'CU-PATE, v.t. [L. nuncupo.]

To declare publicly or solemnly. [Not used.] Barrow.

NUN-CU-PA'TION, n.

A naming. Chaucer.

NUN-CU'PA-TIVE, or NUN-CU'PA-TO-RY, a. [It. nuncupativo; Fr. nuncupatif; from L. nuncupo, to declare.]

1. Nominal; existing only in name. Encyc.
2. Publicly or solemnly declaratory. Fotherby.
3. Verbal, not written. A nuncupative will or testament is one which is made by the verbal declaration of the testator, and depends merely on oral testimony for proof, though afterward reduced to writing. Blackstone.

NUN'DI-NAL, a. [L. nundinalis, from nundinæ, a fair or market, quasi novem-dinæ, every nine days.]

1. Pertaining to a fair or to a market day.
2. A nundinal letter, among the Romans, was one of the eight first letters of the alphabet, which were repeated successively from the first to the last day of the year. One of these always expressed the market days, which returned every nine days.

NUN'DI-NATE, v.i.

To buy and sell at fairs. [Not used.]

NUN-DI-NA'TION, n.

Traffick in fairs. [Not used.]

NUN'IM-NAL, n.

A nundinal letter.

NUN-NA'TION, n.

In Arabic grammar, from the name of N, the pronunciation of n at the end of words.

NUN'NE-RY, n.

A house in which nuns reside; a cloister in which females under a vow of chastity and devoted to religion, reside during life.

NUN'NISH-NESS, n.

The habits or manners of nuns. Fox.

NUP'TIAL, a. [L. nuptialis, front nuptus, nubo, to marry.]

1. Pertaining to marriage; done at a wedding; as, nuptial rites and ceremonies; nuptial torch.
2. Constituting marriage; as, the nuptial knot or band. The Bible has mitigated the horrors of war; it has given effectual obligation to the nuptial vow. G. Spring.

NUP'TIALS, n. [plur.]

Marriage, — which see. Dryden.

NURSE, n. [nurs; 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.t. [nurs.]

1. To tend, as infants; as, to nurse a child.
2. To suckle; to nourish at the breast.
3. To attend and take care of in child-bed; as, to nurse a woman in her illness.
4. To tend the sick; applied to males and females.
5. To feed; to maintain; to bring up. Is. lx.
6. 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.
7. 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.