Definitions

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

  • noun A room or area in a household set apart for the use of children.
  • noun A place for the temporary care of children in the absence of their parents.
  • noun A nursery school.
  • noun A place where plants are grown for sale, transplanting, or experimentation.
  • noun A place in which something is produced, fostered, or developed.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In English billiards, the section, about 2 feet by 6, farthest from balk: it may extend along the cushion almost to the middle pocket: formerly a condition rather than a locality.
  • The act of nursing; tender care and attendance.
  • That which is the object of a nurse's care.
  • A place or apartment set apart for children.
  • A place where trees are raised from seed or otherwise in order to be transplanted; a place where vegetables, flowering plants, and trees are raised (as by budding or grafting) with a view to sale.
  • The place where anything is fostered and its growth promoted.
  • In fish-culture, a shallow box or trough of suitable size used for feeding and nursing young fish through the first six or eight months after the yolk-sac is absorbed.
  • Occupation, condition, or circumstances in which some quality may be fostered or promoted.

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

  • noun obsolete The act of nursing.
  • noun The place where nursing is carried on.
  • noun The place, or apartment, in a house, appropriated to the care of children.
  • noun A place where young of any species, plant or animal, are nourished preparatory to transfer elsewhere
  • noun The place where anything is fostered and growth promoted.
  • noun That which forms and educates.
  • noun rare That which is nursed.

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

  • noun obsolete The act of nursing.
  • noun A place where nursing is carried on; as:
  • noun That which forms and educates.
  • noun rare That which is nursed.

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

  • noun a child's room for a baby
  • noun a building with glass walls and roof; for the cultivation and exhibition of plants under controlled conditions

Etymologies

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

[Middle English noricerie, probably from Old French norricerie, from norrice, nursemaid; see nurse.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

nurse + -ery

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Examples

  • One of the teachers at school, who had two of my kids in nursery is having a baby in the summer so I think I need to get another one ready - and then, of course, I need more for my stockpile - it never ends!

    Stamping and so on katelnorth 2008

  • Painting the nursery is a great idea, if one possesses the talent.

    Inspiring Modern Home Architecture 2010

  • And we would transform what we called the nursery into his office and studio.

    Bob Colacello on Pat and Bill Buckley Bob Colacello 2009

  • And we would transform what we called the nursery into his office and studio.

    Bob Colacello on Pat and Bill Buckley Colacello, Bob 2009

  • The chilMH*med happy while I was there and I visited the kitchen and vul ii meal with the younger ones in what they call the nursery Many of the children have parents serving overseas and the headmistress seems more concerned with health and general happiness than with academic achievement.

    The Lighthouse James, P. D. 1988

  • To allow them in the nursery is at the best misleading and at the worst criminal.

    Try Anything Twice 1938

  • Skyd, I went into what we call the nursery-tent one morning last week, to try to stop the howling of my little boy, and I found him lying with his open mouth close to Gertie's cheek, pouring the flood of his wrath straight into her ear, and she sound asleep all the time!

    The Settler and the Savage 1859

  • She put me in nursery school when I was barely three (before the days of daycare) at the recommendation of our pediatrician.

    Kim Bensen: Things my mom showed me Kim Bensen 2010

  • She put me in nursery school when I was barely three (before the days of daycare) at the recommendation of our pediatrician.

    Kim Bensen: Things my mom showed me Kim Bensen 2010

  • She put me in nursery school when I was barely three (before the days of daycare) at the recommendation of our pediatrician.

    Kim Bensen: Things my mom showed me Kim Bensen 2010

Comments

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  • In Victorian and Edwardian times, for the wealthy and mid-tier classes, a nursery was a suite of rooms at the top of a house, including the night nursery, where the children slept, and a day nursery, where they ate and played. The nursery suite would include some bathroom facilities and possibly a small kitchen. The nurse (nanny) and nursemaid (assistant) slept in the suite too, to be within earshot of the sleeping children. The schoolroom might also be adjacent, but the governess, whose job it was to teach the children, would not be part of the nursery; she would have her own bedroom, possibly in another wing. Fictional portrayals of nurseries abound, for example in the writings of Kipling and E. Nesbit; perhaps the most famous nursery is that in Mary Poppins, or the nursery in J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan.

    _Wikipedia

    February 10, 2008

  • See this map for American pronunciation.

    April 11, 2008