Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To provide with food or other substances necessary for life and growth; feed.
  • transitive verb To foster the development of; promote.
  • transitive verb To keep alive; maintain.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To nurse; suckle; bring up, as a child.
  • To feed; supply (a living or organized body, animal or vegetable) with the material required to repair the waste accompanying the vital processes and to promote growth; supply with nutriment.
  • To promote the growth or development of in any way; foster; cherish.
  • To support; maintain, in a general sense; supply the means of support and increase to; encourage.
  • To bring up; educate; instruct.
  • To serve to promote growth; be nutritious.
  • To gain nourishment.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To feed and cause to grow; to supply with matter which increases bulk or supplies waste, and promotes health; to furnish with nutriment.
  • transitive verb To support; to maintain.
  • transitive verb To supply the means of support and increase to; to encourage; to foster
  • transitive verb To cherish; to comfort.
  • transitive verb To educate; to instruct; to bring up; to nurture; to promote the growth of in attainments.
  • intransitive verb To promote growth; to furnish nutriment.
  • intransitive verb rare To gain nourishment.
  • noun obsolete A nurse.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete A nurse.
  • verb To feed and cause to grow; to supply with matter which increases bulk or supplies waste, and promotes health; to furnish with nutriment.
  • verb To support; to maintain.
  • verb To supply the means of support and increase to; to encourage; to foster; as, to nourish rebellion; to nourish the virtues.
  • verb To cherish; to comfort.
  • verb To educate; to instruct; to bring up; to nurture; to promote the growth of in attainments.
  • verb To promote growth; to furnish nutriment.
  • verb To gain nourishment.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb provide with nourishment
  • verb give nourishment to

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English norishen, from Old French norrir, norriss-, from Vulgar Latin *nutrīre, from Latin nūtrīre; see (s)nāu- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old French nouriss-, stem of one of the conjugated forms of norrir, from Latin nutrire ("to suckle, feed, foster, nourish, cherish, preserve, support").

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Examples

  • "nourish" - delivered an evening of high-energy dances interspersed with inspirational quotations.

    The Santa Barbara Independent stories 2010

  • But this mostly does not matter unless we 'nourish' their growth.

    Kathy Freston: A Cure For Cancer? Eating A Plant-Based Diet 2009

  • Finally, I kind of nourish the probably vain hope that Madonna is smart enough to never get into another serious relationship.

    How much of Madonna's money should Guy Ritchie get? Ann Althouse 2008

  • Yet, Europe's most famous secular liberal philosopher, Jurgen Habermas, now argues that since postmodern society is unable to generate its own values, it can only "nourish" itself from religious sources.

    enowning enowning 2007

  • Yet, Europe's most famous secular liberal philosopher, Jurgen Habermas, now argues that since postmodern society is unable to generate its own values, it can only "nourish" itself from religious sources.

    Archive 2007-07-01 enowning 2007

  • He hopes that the book may for many readers touch with new meaning those old weatherworn stones at Botany Bay, and make the personality of Laperouse live again for such as nourish an interest in

    Laperouse Ernest Scott 1903

  • The grass or herbage of these downs is full of the sweetest and the most aromatic plants, such as nourish the sheep to a strange degree; and the sheep's dung, again, nourishes that herbage to a strange degree; so that the valleys are rendered extremely fruitful by the washing of the water in hasty showers from off these hills.

    From London to Land's End and Two Letters from the "Journey through England by a Gentleman" Daniel Defoe 1696

  • It should be considered though that these minerals may not necessarily be present to "nourish" cells, but are needed to act as "electrodes" in the humic electrolyte solution.

    Wil's Ebay E-Store amp;34; 2010

  • AmandaMarcotte This is my weirdness, but when someone writes about the politics of food, and the words "nourish" and "body" sit near each other, I gack. chickengreve I get myself all worked up about politics.

    Gaea Times (by Simple Thoughts) Breaking News and incisive views 24/7 2009

  • During those times, he would 'nourish' himself through eating fast foods, hotel restaurants, or other fine food establishments in various cities.

    News 2009

Comments

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  • Under Earth’s normal conditions: you can feed your body and you can feed your mind, but the latter, unlike the former, will never have that full, satisfied feeling; you have to find your own way(s) to tear your personal thinking operation away from the magnetic attraction & hold of humanity’s collective thinking --

    only then will you experientially know what it is to actually nourish your mind...and enjoy it to the hilt.

    --Jan Cox

    June 17, 2007