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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Dry nurse

Nurse \Nurse\ (n[^u]rs), n. [OE. nourse, nurice, norice, OF. nurrice, norrice, nourrice, F. nourrice, fr. L. nutricia nurse, prop., fem. of nutricius that nourishes; akin to nutrix, -icis, nurse, fr. nutrire to nourish. See Nourish, and cf. Nutritious.]

  1. One who nourishes; a person who supplies food, tends, or brings up; as:

    1. A woman who has the care of young children; especially, one who suckles an infant not her own.

    2. A person, especially a woman, who has the care of the sick or infirm.

  2. One who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow, trains, fosters, or the like.

    The nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise.
    --Burke.

  3. (Naut.) A lieutenant or first officer, who is the real commander when the captain is unfit for his place.

  4. (Zo["o]l.)

    1. A peculiar larva of certain trematodes which produces cercari[ae] by asexual reproduction. See Cercaria, and Redia.

    2. Either one of the nurse sharks. Nurse shark. (Zo["o]l.)

      1. A large arctic shark ( Somniosus microcephalus), having small teeth and feeble jaws; -- called also sleeper shark, and ground shark.

      2. A large shark ( Ginglymostoma cirratum), native of the West Indies and Gulf of Mexico, having the dorsal fins situated behind the ventral fins.

        To put to nurse, or To put out to nurse, to send away to be nursed; to place in the care of a nurse.

        Wet nurse, Dry nurse. See Wet nurse, and Dry nurse, in the Vocabulary.

Dry nurse

Dry nurse \Dry" nurse`\ A nurse who attends and feeds a child by hand; -- in distinction from a wet nurse, who suckles it.

Wiktionary
dry nurse

n. A nurse who attends and feeds a child by hand, distinguished from a wet nurse, who suckles it.

WordNet
dry nurse

n. a nurse who cares for but does not suckle an infant

Usage examples of "dry nurse".

Alessia was in a room just off the banqueting hall with a dry nurse, and by the feel of it Alessia could use some feeding.

I am looking for an attendant for my youngest wife and a dry nurse for the baby that is coming.

But if we were to narrate all the wonderful events of Jack's childhood from the time of his birth up to the age of seven years, as chronicled by Sarah, who continued his dry nurse after he had been weaned, it would take at least three volumes folio.

Tom Crauford had the master's child to dry nurse: he was only two years old: Tom let him fall, not intentionally, but the poor child was a cripple in consequence of it for life.