wet-nursing

verb

present participle of wet-nurse
1
as in nursing
to give milk to from the breast wet-nursed the woman's baby until she was well enough to do it herself

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in spoiling
to treat with great or excessive care recent college grads quickly learn that employers won't wet-nurse them the way that their teachers did

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for wet-nursing
  1. nursing
  2. spoiling
  3. indulging
Verb
  • Brents has been nursing a neck/shoulder injury for the past two weeks and re-aggravated it in Sunday’s 28-25 win over the Jets.
    — Omar Kelly, Miami Herald, 29 Oct. 2026
  • The Saints could be without star quarterback Brailon Davis who’s nursing an injury, but backup Bodie Brown has stepped in and completed 32 of 45 for 454 yards and seven touchdowns in the past two games.
    — Darren Lauber, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 22 Oct. 2026
Definition of nursing
Verb
  • London — Cyberattacks on grocery store refrigeration systems across Europe sent temperatures soaring on Monday, spoiling food and causing significant financial losses in the second such incident in less than a month.
    — Inaya Folarin Iman, CBS News, 4 Nov. 2026
  • Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images European supermarkets have become the center of another cyberattack, with hackers remotely heating fridges and spoiling food.
    — Sawdah Bhaimiya, CNBC, 3 Nov. 2026
Definition of spoiling
Verb
  • Shaw’s witty drawing-room debates also warn of a society indulging its whims as catastrophe approaches — a question of how to live when the world careens toward darkness.
    — Theater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 28 Oct. 2026
  • Adults aren’t always used to indulging this kind of curiosity.
    — Angela Haupt, Time, 20 Oct. 2026
Definition of indulging
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

wet-nurses
wet-nursing
wets
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Cite this Entry

“Wet-nursing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wet-nursing. Accessed 8 Nov. 2026.

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