wet-nursed; wet-nursing; wet-nurses
1
: to care for and breastfeed (another woman's baby) : to act as wet nurse to
2
: to give constant and often excessive care to
: a woman who cares for and breastfeeds children not her own
Synonyms
Examples of wet-nurse in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Annika Pham, Variety, 18 Jan. 2024
Beth Ann Mayer, Parents, 24 Aug. 2023
Additionally, Black women were forced to work as wet nurses during slavery, taking away their personal agency and cementing their feelings of having no choice.
—Jazmin Towe, Parents, 29 Aug. 2023
In 1908, on the whim of the Empress Dowager dying under her cracking whitewash makeup, a beguiling 3-year-old is torn away from his mother in the dark of night and taken, with his wet nurse, to China’s most astonishing palace — the 9,999-room Forbidden City.
—Los Angeles Times, 25 Jan. 2023
Ina accepted their hospitality and found herself soon well employed as the village wet nurse.
—Ottessa Moshfegh, Harper’s Magazine , 25 May 2022
This would have been impossible without a wet nurse and a supportive husband.
—Claire Moran, CNN, 20 Dec. 2022
The boy’s childhood was spent first with a wet nurse and later at a number of boarding schools in Switzerland and Italy.
—Joan Acocella, The New Yorker, 10 Oct. 2022
One is Ina, a blind and aged wet nurse who lived in a cave for decades.
—New York Times, 13 June 2022
Stephanie Kresta, a 35-year-old mother of five in Houston, is one of dozens of people who have publicly posted to Facebook offering to wet nurse for other babies, should parents face such dire need.
—Eleanor Cummins, The New Republic, 26 May 2022
Verb
In Von Horn’s pic, set in post WW1 Copenhagen, the focal point is Karoline (Sonne), a young pregnant factory worker, who takes on the job of a wet-nurse for the charismatic Dagmar (Dyrholm) in order to escape poverty.
—Annika Pham, Variety, 18 Jan. 2024
Noun
Black enslaved women were often forced to be wet nurses or, after giving birth, sent back to work in the fields while someone else may or may not have cared for their child.
—Beth Ann Mayer, Parents, 24 Aug. 2023
Additionally, Black women were forced to work as wet nurses during slavery, taking away their personal agency and cementing their feelings of having no choice.
—Jazmin Towe, Parents, 29 Aug. 2023
In 1908, on the whim of the Empress Dowager dying under her cracking whitewash makeup, a beguiling 3-year-old is torn away from his mother in the dark of night and taken, with his wet nurse, to China’s most astonishing palace — the 9,999-room Forbidden City.
—Los Angeles Times, 25 Jan. 2023
Ina accepted their hospitality and found herself soon well employed as the village wet nurse.
—Ottessa Moshfegh, Harper’s Magazine , 25 May 2022
This would have been impossible without a wet nurse and a supportive husband.
—Claire Moran, CNN, 20 Dec. 2022
The boy’s childhood was spent first with a wet nurse and later at a number of boarding schools in Switzerland and Italy.
—Joan Acocella, The New Yorker, 10 Oct. 2022
One is Ina, a blind and aged wet nurse who lived in a cave for decades.
—New York Times, 13 June 2022
Stephanie Kresta, a 35-year-old mother of five in Houston, is one of dozens of people who have publicly posted to Facebook offering to wet nurse for other babies, should parents face such dire need.
—Eleanor Cummins, The New Republic, 26 May 2022
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'wet-nurse.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Wet-nurse.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wet-nurse. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
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