wet-nurse

1 of 2

verb

ˈwet-ˌnərs 

wet-nursed; wet-nursing; wet-nurses

transitive verb

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

wet nurse

2 of 2

noun

: a woman who cares for and breastfeeds children not her own

Synonyms

Verb

• breast-feed
• nurse
• suckle

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

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

Among several biblical references, the pharaoh’s daughter hires a wet nurse to feed baby Moses. —David Reamer, Anchorage Daily News, 22 May 2022

The child was whisked off to a wet nurse in the countryside; Montesano married another woman, and Montessori, finding proximity to her ex-lover unbearable, resigned her position at the school. —Jessica Winter, The New Yorker, 3 Mar. 2022

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Word History

First Known Use

Verb

1784, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun

1620, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

wet nurse

noun

: a woman who cares for and breastfeeds young not her own