What is "nurse shark"

Shark \Shark\, n. [Of uncertain origin; perhaps through OF. fr. carcharus a kind of dogfish, Gr. karchari`as, so called from its sharp teeth, fr. ka`rcharos having sharp or jagged teeth; or perhaps named from its rapacity (cf. Shark, v. t. & i.); cf. Corn. scarceas.]

1. (Zo["o]l.) Any one of numerous species of elasmobranch fishes of the order Plagiostomi, found in all seas.

   Note: Some sharks, as the basking shark and the whale shark, grow to an enormous size, the former becoming forty feet or more, and the latter sixty feet or more, in length. Most of them are harmless to man, but some are exceedingly voracious. The man-eating sharks mostly belong to the genera Carcharhinus, Carcharodon, and related genera. They have several rows of large sharp teeth with serrated edges, as the great white shark ( Carcharodon carcharias or Carcharodon Rondeleti) of tropical seas, and the great blue shark ( Carcharhinus glaucus) of all tropical and temperate seas. The former sometimes becomes thirty-six feet long, and is the most voracious and dangerous species known. The rare man-eating shark of the United States coast ( Charcarodon Atwoodi) is thought by some to be a variety, or the young, of C. carcharias. The dusky shark ( Carcharhinus obscurus), and the smaller blue shark ( C. caudatus), both common species on the coast of the United States, are of moderate size and not dangerous. They feed on shellfish and bottom fishes.

2. A rapacious, artful person; a sharper. [Colloq.]

3. Trickery; fraud; petty rapine; as, to live upon the shark. [Obs.]
   --South.

   Baskin shark, Liver shark, Nurse shark, Oil shark, Sand shark, Tiger shark, etc. See under Basking, Liver, etc. See also Dogfish, Houndfish, Notidanian, and Tope.

   Gray shark, the sand shark.

   Hammer-headed shark. See Hammerhead.

   Port Jackson shark. See Cestraciont.

   Shark barrow, the eggcase of a shark; a sea purse.

   Shark ray. Same as Angel fish (a), under Angel.

   Thrasher shark or Thresher shark, a large, voracious shark. See Thrasher.

   Whale shark, a huge harmless shark ( Rhinodon typicus) of the Indian Ocean. It becomes sixty feet or more in length, but has very small teeth.

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.

n. Any of various bottom-dwelling sharks of the family ''(taxlink Ginglymostomatidae family noshow=1)'' that have two fleshy barbels hanging from the lower jaw.

n. small bottom-dwelling shark of warm shallow waters on both coasts of North America and South America and from southeast Asia to Australia [syn: Ginglymostoma cirratum]

The nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum) is a shark in the family Ginglymostomatidae. Nurse sharks can reach a length of .