Nurse \Nurse\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Nursed; p. pr. & vb. n.
  
         Nursing.]
   1. To
         nourish; to cherish; to foster; as:
 
             (a) To nourish at the breast; to suckle; to feed and
         tend,
          as an infant.
      (b) To take care of or tend, as a sick
         person or an
          invalid; to attend upon.
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                Sons wont to nurse their parents in old age.
                                                  --Milton.
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                Him in Egerian groves Aricia bore,
                And nursed his youth along the marshy shore.
                                                  --Dryden.
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   2. 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
         nurse the saplings tall." --Milton.
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            By what hands [has vice] been nursed into so
            uncontrolled a dominion?              --Locke.
     
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   3. To manage with care and economy,
         with a view to increase;
      as, to nurse our national
         resources.
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   4. To caress; to
         fondle, as a nurse does. --A. Trollope.
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         Webster]

   To nurse billiard balls, to strike them
         gently and so as to
      keep them in good position during
         a series of caroms.
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