nerve

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of the cordlike bundles of fibers made up of neurons through which sensory stimuli and motor impulses pass between the brain or other parts of the central nervous system and the eyes, glands, muscles, and other parts of the body. Nerves form a network of pathways for conducting information throughout the body.
2. n. The sensitive tissue in the pulp of a tooth.
3. n. A sore point or sensitive subject: The criticism touched a nerve.
4. n. Courage and control under pressure: lost his nerve at the last minute.
5. n. Fortitude; stamina.
6. n. Forceful quality; boldness.
7. n. Brazen boldness; effrontery: had the nerve to deny it.
8. n. Nervous agitation caused by fear, anxiety, or stress: an attack of nerves.
9. n. A vein or rib in the wing of an insect.
10. n. The midrib and larger veins in a leaf.
11. v. To give strength or courage to.
12. idiom. get on (someone's) nerves To irritate or exasperate.
13. idiom. strain every nerve To make every effort.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A sinew, tendon, or other hard white cord of the body: the original meaning of the word, at the time when nervous tissue was not distinguished from some forms of connective tissue. See aponeurosis.
2. n. In anatomy, a nerve-fiber, or usually a bundle of nerve-fibers, running from a central ganglionic organ to peripheral mechanisms, either active (as glands and muscles) or receptive (sense-organs). The nerve-fibers are bound together into a primitive bundle called a funiculus. The connective tissue between the fibers within the funiculus is the endoneurium, and the connective tissue sheathing the funiculus is the perineurium. In the larger nerves several funiculi may be bound together into one trunk by connective tissue which forms the epineurium. See cut under median.
3. n. Something resembling a nerve (either a sinew, as in the earlier figurative uses, or a nerve in the present sense, 2) in form or function.
4. n. Strength of sinew; bodily strength; firmness or vigor of body; muscular power; brawn. More specifically— Strength, power, or might in general; fortitude or endurance under trying or critical circumstances; courage.
5. n. Force; energy; spirit; dash.
6. n. Assurance: boldness; cheek.
7. n. plural Hysterical nervousness. See nervousness .
8. n. In entomology, a nervure; a vein; a costa; one of the tubular ridges or thickenings which ramify in the wings. See nervure, 3.
9. n. In botany, one of a system of ribs or principal veins in a leaf. See nervation.
10. n. In architecture, same as nervure, 1.
11. n. A technical name applied to the non-porous quality acquired by cork when, in its preparation for use in the arts, its surface is slightly charred by heat, and its pores are thus closed.
12. n. Branches of the pneumogastric to the cardiac plexus, variable in number. Those arising in the neck are called cervical cardiac; in the thorax, thoracic.
13. n. Anterior dental nerve, a branch of the superior maxillary supplying tile upper front teeth and contiguous part of the antrum. Also called superior anterior alveolar
14. n. Inferior dental nerve, the largest branch of the inferior maxillary, running through the inferior dental canal and supplying the teeth of the lower jaw. It, gives off the mylohyoid and mental branches. Also called inferior alveolar
15. n. Posterior dental nerve, a branch of the superior maxillary distributed to the mucous membrane of the cheek and gum and the back teeth of the upper jaw. Also called posterior superior alveolar.
16. n. The glossopharyngeal, vagus, and spinal accessory nerves.
17. n. Of the foot, slender branches of the anterior tibial to the metatarso-phalangeal articulations
18. n. Posterior, the larger terminal division of the musculospiral. It supplies the short supinator and all the extensor muscles on the back of the arm, except, the long radiocarpal.
19. n. The pars intermedia of the facial nerve.
20. n. The hypoglossal nerve.
21. n. The facial and auditory nerves.
22. To give nerve to; supply strength or vigor to; arm with force, physical or moral: as, rage nerved his arm.

Wiktionary

1. n. zoology A bundle of neurons with their connective tissue sheaths, blood vessels and lymphatics.
2. n. nonstandard, colloquial A neuron.
3. n. botany A vein in a leaf; a grain in wood
4. n. Courage, boldness.
5. n. Patience. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
6. n. Stamina, endurance, fortitude. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
7. n. Audacity, gall.
8. n. in the plural Agitation caused by fear, stress or other negative emotion.
9. n. obsolete Sinew, tendon.
10. v. transitive To give courage; sometimes with "up".
11. v. transitive To give strength

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Anat.) One of the whitish and elastic bundles of fibers, with the accompanying tissues, which transmit nervous impulses between nerve centers and various parts of the animal body.
2. n. A sinew or a tendon.
3. n. Physical force or steadiness; muscular power and control; constitutional vigor.
4. n. Steadiness and firmness of mind; self-command in personal danger, or under suffering; unshaken courage and endurance; coolness; pluck; resolution.
5. n. Slang Audacity; assurance.
6. n. (Bot.) One of the principal fibrovascular bundles or ribs of a leaf, especially when these extend straight from the base or the midrib of the leaf.
7. n. (Zoöl.) One of the nervures, or veins, in the wings of insects.
8. v. To give strength or vigor to; to supply with force.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. impudent aggressiveness
2. n. the courage to carry on
3. n. any bundle of nerve fibers running to various organs and tissues of the body
4. v. get ready for something difficult or unpleasant