nurse

1. (n) A person involved in providing direct care for the sick: 2. (n) (informal) Anyone performing this role, regardless of training or profession. 3. (n) A medical worker performing this role, typically someone trained to provide such care but having credentials and rank below a doctor or physician assistant. 4. (n) (healthcare) A medical worker, such as a registered nurse, having training, credentials, and rank above a nurse assistant. 5. (n) A person (usually a woman) who takes care of other people’s children. 6. (n) (figurative) One who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow, trains, or fosters. 7. (n) (horticulture) A shrub or tree that protects a young plant. 8. (n) (nautical) A lieutenant or first officer who takes command when the captain is unfit for his place. 9. (n) A larva of certain trematodes, which produces cercariae by asexual reproduction. 10. (v) (transitive) To breastfeed: to feed (a baby) at the breast; to suckle. 11. (v) (intransitive) To breastfeed: to be fed at the breast. 12. (v) (transitive) To care for (someone), especially in sickness; to tend to. 13. (v) (transitive) To tend gently and with extra care. 14. (v) (transitive) To manage or oversee (something) with care and economy. 15. (v) (transitive, informal) To drink (a beverage) slowly, so as to make it last. 16. (v) (transitive, figuratively) To cultivate or persistently entertain (an attitude, usually negative) in one's mind; to brood or obsess over. 17. (v) (transitive) To hold closely to one's chest. 18. (v) (transitive, billiards) To strike (billiard balls) gently, so as to keep them in good position during a series of shots. 19. (n) A nurse shark or dogfish. 20. (n) (archaic) A wet nurse. 21. (n) A surname.