one who nourishes; a person who supplies food, tends, or brings up; as: (a) a woman who has the care of young children; especially, one who suckles an infant not her own. (b) a person, especially a woman, who has the care of the sick or infirm.-one who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow, trains, fosters, or the like.-a lieutenant or first officer, who is the real commander when the captain is unfit for his place.-a peculiar larva of certain trematodes which produces cercariae by asexual reproduction. see cercaria, and redia.-either one of the nurse sharks.-to nourish; to cherish; to foster-to nourish at the breast; to suckle; to feed and tend, as an infant.-to take care of or tend, as a sick person or an invalid; to attend upon.-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 manage with care and economy, with a view to increase; as, to nurse our national resources.-to caress; to fondle, as a nurse does.