nurture

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nur·ture

(nûr′chər)

a. The action of raising or caring for offspring: the nurture of an infant.

b. Biology The sum of environmental influences and conditions acting on an organism, especially in contrast to heredity.

c. The fostering or overseeing of the development of something: the nurture of an idea.

2. Something that nourishes; sustenance: "The butterfly poked its tiny proboscis down into her hair, probing for nurture" (Barbara Kingsolver).

tr.v. nur·tured, nur·tur·ing, nur·tures

a. To raise or educate (a child, for example).

b. To encourage or help develop; cultivate: "a small college town that had nurtured his intellectual and creative pursuits" (James S. Hirsch).

2. To provide sustenance for; nourish: the meadow that nurtures the cattle.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin nūtrītūra, act of suckling, from Latin nūtrītus, past participle of nūtrīre, to suckle; see (s)nāu- in Indo-European roots.]

nur′tur·er n.

Synonyms: nurture, cultivate, foster, nurse
These verbs mean to promote and sustain the growth and development of: nurturing hopes; cultivating tolerance; foster friendly relations; nursed the fledgling business.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

nurture

(ˈnɜːtʃə)

1. the act or process of promoting the development, etc, of a child

2. something that nourishes

3. (Biology) biology the environmental factors that partly determine the structure of an organism. See also nature¹²

vb (tr)

4. to feed or support

5. to educate or train

[C14: from Old French norriture, from Latin nutrīre to nourish]

ˈnurturable adj

ˈnurturer n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

nur•ture

(ˈnɜr tʃər)

v. -tured, -tur•ing,
n. v.t.

1. to feed and protect or support and encourage.

2. to bring up; train; educate.

3. upbringing; training; education.

4. development: the nurture of young artists.

5. something that nourishes; food.

[1300–50; (n.) Middle English norture < Middle French nour(ri)ture < Late Latin nūtrītūra a nourishing]

nur′tur•er, n.

nurture

- The verb was formed after the noun, which first referred (c. 1330) to a person's training or breeding. The word can be traced back to Latin nutritus, meaning "to nourish."

nurture

Past participle: nurtured
Gerund: nurturing

Imperative
nurture
nurture

Present
I nurture
you nurture
he/she/it nurtures
we nurture
you nurture
they nurture

Preterite
I nurtured
you nurtured
he/she/it nurtured
we nurtured
you nurtured
they nurtured

Present Continuous
I am nurturing
you are nurturing
he/she/it is nurturing
we are nurturing
you are nurturing
they are nurturing

Present Perfect
I have nurtured
you have nurtured
he/she/it has nurtured
we have nurtured
you have nurtured
they have nurtured

Past Continuous
I was nurturing
you were nurturing
he/she/it was nurturing
we were nurturing
you were nurturing
they were nurturing

Past Perfect
I had nurtured
you had nurtured
he/she/it had nurtured
we had nurtured
you had nurtured
they had nurtured

Future
I will nurture
you will nurture
he/she/it will nurture
we will nurture
you will nurture
they will nurture

Future Perfect
I will have nurtured
you will have nurtured
he/she/it will have nurtured
we will have nurtured
you will have nurtured
they will have nurtured

Future Continuous
I will be nurturing
you will be nurturing
he/she/it will be nurturing
we will be nurturing
you will be nurturing
they will be nurturing

Present Perfect Continuous
I have been nurturing
you have been nurturing
he/she/it has been nurturing
we have been nurturing
you have been nurturing
they have been nurturing

Future Perfect Continuous
I will have been nurturing
you will have been nurturing
he/she/it will have been nurturing
we will have been nurturing
you will have been nurturing
they will have been nurturing

Past Perfect Continuous
I had been nurturing
you had been nurturing
he/she/it had been nurturing
we had been nurturing
you had been nurturing
they had been nurturing

Conditional
I would nurture
you would nurture
he/she/it would nurture
we would nurture
you would nurture
they would nurture

Past Conditional
I would have nurtured
you would have nurtured
he/she/it would have nurtured
we would have nurtured
you would have nurtured
they would have nurtured

Collins English Verb Tables © HarperCollins Publishers 2011

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun	1.	nurture - the properties acquired as a consequence of the way you were treated as a child rearing, raising upbringing - properties acquired during a person's formative years
	2.	nurture - helping someone grow up to be an accepted member of the community; "they debated whether nature or nurture was more important" bringing up, fosterage, fostering, rearing, upbringing, breeding, raising acculturation, enculturation, socialisation, socialization - the adoption of the behavior patterns of the surrounding culture; "the socialization of children to the norms of their culture"
Verb	1.	nurture - help develop, help grow; "nurture his talents" foster patronage, keep going, patronise, patronize, support - be a regular customer or client of; "We patronize this store"; "Our sponsor kept our art studio going for as long as he could" encourage - inspire with confidence; give hope or courage to serve well, serve - promote, benefit, or be useful or beneficial to; "Art serves commerce"; "Their interests are served"; "The lake serves recreation"; "The President's wisdom has served the country well"
	2.	nurture - bring up; "raise a family"; "bring up children" parent, bring up, rear, raise fledge - feed, care for, and rear young birds for flight cradle - bring up from infancy foster - bring up under fosterage; of children
	3.	nurture - provide with nourishment; "We sustained ourselves on bread and water"; "This kind of food is not nourishing for young children" nourish, sustain cater, ply, provide, supply - give what is desired or needed, especially support, food or sustenance; "The hostess provided lunch for all the guests" carry - be able to feed; "This land will carry ten cows to the acre"

nurture

verb

1. bring up, raise, look after, rear, care for, develop Parents want to know the best way to nurture and raise their children to adulthood.
bring up ignore, overlook, neglect, deprive, disregard

2. tend, grow, cultivate The modern conservatory is not an environment for nurturing plants.

3. encourage, support, sustain, cultivate Seema's interest in literature was nurtured by her parents.

noun

1. upbringing, training, education, instruction, rearing, development The human organism learns partly by nature, partly by nurture.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

nurture

noun

Something fit to be eaten:

aliment, bread, comestible, diet, edible, esculent, fare, food, foodstuff, meat, nourishment, nutriment, nutrition, pabulum, pap, provender, provision (used in plural), sustenance, victual.

Slang: chow, eats, grub.

verb

To promote and sustain the development of:

cultivate, foster, nourish, nurse.

Translations

تَنْشِئَه، تَرْبِيَه، عِنايَه، غِذاءيُغَذّي، يُرَبِّي، يُنْشِئ

chovatpéčepěstovatvýchovavychovávat

nærenæringopfostreopfostring

aufziehen Pflege

criar educación educar crianza

hoitokasvatusravinto

alimenter élever nourrir soins

táplálás

fóstra, ala uppumönnun, uppfóstrun

allevare

audzēšanaaudzētaudzināšanaaudzināt

ernære oppfostring

bakıp beslemebakıp beslemekbakıp büyütmebakıp büyütmek

养育培育

nurture

[ˈnɜːtʃəʳ]

A. VT

1. (= bring up) → criar, educar

2. (= nourish) → nutrir, alimentar

B. N

1. (= bringing-up) → educación f, crianza f
nature or nurture → naturaleza o educación

2. (= nourishment) → nutrición f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

nurture

[ˈnɜː^rtʃə^r] vt

(= encourage) [+ person] → former; [+ talent] → encourager

[+ hopes, ambition] → nourrir; [+ dream] → caresser
He nurtured an ambition to become a diplomat → Il nourrissait l'ambition de devenir diplomate.
He nurtured a dream of becoming a world-famous conductor → Il caressait le rêve de devenir un chef d'orchestre mondialement célèbre.
They nurture a dream of a fairer society
BUT Ils rêvent d'une société plus juste.

(= raise) [+ child] → élever; [+ plant] → faire pousser

nurture

n (= nourishing) → Hegen nt; (= upbringing) → Erziehung f, → Bildung f

sb’s talent → entwickeln; idea, ambitions → hegen; to nurture somebody on something (lit, fig) → jdn mit etw aufziehen

(fig: = train) → hegen und pflegen

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

nurture

[ˈnɜːtʃəʳ] vt (rear) → allevare con amore; (feed) → nutrire

nurture

(ˈnəːtʃə) verb

to encourage the growth and development of (a child, plant etc).

noun

care; help in growing or developing.

nurture

vt nutrir, criar, apoyar

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nurture and education.

'Or against those of us who after birth regulate the nurture and education of children, in which you also were trained?

View in context

I exhorted her to seek consolation in doing her duty to God and man, to put her trust in Heaven, and solace herself with the care and nurture of her little daughter; assuring her she would be amply rewarded by witnessing its progress in strength and wisdom, and receiving its genuine affection.

View in context

Education, I said, and nurture: If our citizens are well educated, and grow into sensible men, they will easily see their way through all these, as well as other matters which I omit; such, for example, as marriage, the possession of women and the procreation of children, which will all follow the general principle that friends have all things in common, as the proverb says.

For good nurture and education implant good constitutions, and these good constitutions taking root in a good education improve more and more, and this improvement affects the breed in man as in other animals.

View in context

I'm not going to nurture her in luxury and idleness after Linton is gone.

View in context

Moan for your nurture of him, moan for your corruption of him, moan for your loss of him, moan for mine!'

View in context

A weaver who finds hard words in his hymn-book knows nothing of abstractions; as the little child knows nothing of parental love, but only knows one face and one lap towards which it stretches its arms for refuge and nurture.

View in context

As Mr Swiveller was decidedly favourable to these performances, upon the ground that looking at a Punch, or indeed looking at anything out of window, was better than working; and as he had been, for this reason, at some pains to awaken in his fellow clerk a sense of their beauties and manifold deserts; both he and Miss Sally rose as with one accord and took up their positions at the window: upon the sill whereof, as in a post of honour, sundry young ladies and gentlemen who were employed in the dry nurture of babies, and who made a point of being present, with their young charges, on such occasions, had already established themselves as comfortably as the circumstances would allow.

View in context

She saw the children of the settlement on the grassy margin of the street, or at the domestic thresholds, disporting themselves in such grim fashions as the Puritanic nurture would permit!

View in context

The nurture ribbons are intended as a prompt to take time out of your day to think about your baby's movement and to call triage immediately should there be any changes.

Nurture your baby early

Showing the love Children delighted with new nurture area

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