nursing

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈnɝsɪŋ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈnɜːsɪŋ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)sɪŋ
• Hyphenation: nurs‧ing

nursing (comparative more nursing, superlative most nursing)

1. In the state of suckling young, lactating.

   The nursing bear wouldn't move far until her cubs were older.

2. Referring to nurses.

   The nursing staff worked overtime at the hospital.

nursing (countable and uncountable, plural nursings)

2. Suckling, such as breastfeeding.
4. The process or profession of caring for patients as a nurse.

   She went into nursing as a career.

   • 1871, Florence Nightingale, Una and the Lion, page 6:

     Nursing is an art; and, if it is to be made an art, requires as exclusive a devotion, as hard a preparation, as any painter's or sculptor's work; […]

nursing

1. present participle and gerund of nurse

   The mother sat there nursing her baby.

• unrings, urnings

Unadapted borrowing from English nursing.

nursing n (uncountable)

1. nursing