wet-nurse, v. trans.
To serve as wet nurse to, suckle (another woman's infant). Also transf.
| 1784 Morn. Chron. 13 Apr. 4/4 Advt., Wanted, a Child to Wet Nurse, by a Young Woman, with a good breast of milk. 1786 A. M. Bennett Juvenile Indiscr. III. 62 At the house of the woman who had wet-nursed him. 1860 O. W. Holmes Professor i. 25 A mythus..Such as Livy told about the wolf that wet-nursed Romulus and Remus. |
b. fig. To treat tenderly or take under special care, as if helpless.
| 1873 Siliad 109 A curious youth..Who, ere his whiskers had completely grown, Possessed a comic paper of his own; But though wet-nursed by someone in Debrett, It died quite young. 1891 Telegr. Jrnl. 13 Feb. 205/2 The system of wet-nursing adopted by the Post Office authorities in the case of the telegraph service has not been one of uniform success. 1893 Westm. Gaz. 7 Feb. 6/1 A member of independent spirit—not wet-nursed for party purposes by political gold. 1917 Blackw. Mag. Nov. 584/1, I was wet-nursed by an elderly old buffer of a General. |