Nursery

/ˈnɜːsəɹi/ · noun

Meaning

(countable) A place where nursing (“breastfeeding”) or the raising of children is carried on..

Definitions by Sense

1. (countable) A place where nursing (“breastfeeding”) or the raising of children is carried on.
2. (countable, also figuratively) A place where anything is fostered and growth promoted.
3. (countable) Something which educates and nurtures.
4. (countable, billiards) Ellipsis of nursery cannon (“a carom shot involving balls that are very close together”).
5. (countable, obsolete, rare) Someone or something that is nursed; a nursling.
6. (uncountable, obsolete) The act of nursing or rearing.

Example Sentences

[S]ince for the great deſire I had To ſee faire Padua, nurſerie of Arts, I am arriu'd for fruitfull Lombardie, The pleaſant garden of great Italy.

Playes are the nurseries of vice, the bawd, / That thorow the senses steales our hearts abroad, / Tainting our eares with obscæne bawdery, / Lascivious words, and wanton ribaulry.

Nudgee College is regarded as the greatest rugby nursery in Queensland, with the boys in the blue-and-white butcher's stripes winning more Greater Public School rugby premierships than any other team.

Commerce is the nursery of seamen.

The Apoſtles in their travails took ſome choice, and hopeful perſons to accompany them, to Miniſter unto them, and obſerve their waies, who were a kind of ſeminary, or nurſery of Apoſtles, planted, with deſigned ſucceſſors.

[I]n fine, they must consider Christian families as the nurseries of the church on earth, as the church on earth is the nursery of the church in heaven; and thus be brought to bring up youth in the "nurture and admonition of the Lord:" and then we shall have peace; then all will speak the same things, and there will be no divisions among you.

I lou'd her moſt, and thought to ſet my reſt / On her kind nurcery, [...]

Synonyms for nursery

Antonyms for nursery

Related Words

Word Forms

• nurseries

Usage Notes

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