nurture

noun

1. 1

   The act of nourishing or nursing; tender care

2. 2

   That which nourishes; food; diet.

   Other great houses there bee of the English in Ireland, which thorough licentious conversing with the Irish, or marrying, or fostering with them, or lacke of meete nurture, or other such unhappy occasions, have degendred from their auncient dignities, and are now growne as Irish, as O-hanlans breech, as the proverbe there is.

3. 3

   The environmental influences that contribute to a person’s development (as opposed to "nature").

   A Deuill, a borne-Deuill, on whoſe nature / Nurture can neuer ſticke :

   […]a man neither by nature nor by nurture wiſe.

4. 4

   The act or process of encouraging the growth or development of something.

   The problem is aggravated by the fact that much of the gay sub-culture is not conducive to the nurture of the radical ego integrity of which Erikson speaks.

verb

1. 1

   To nourish or nurse.

   Look where he would, some heap of ruins afforded him rich promise of a working off; the whole town appeared to have been ploughed, and sown, and nurtured by most genial weather; and a goodly harvest was at hand.

2. 2

   figurativeTo encourage, especially the growth or development of something.

   2009, UNESCO, The United Nations World Water Development Report – N° 3 - 2009 – Freshwater and International Law (the Interplay between Universal, Regional and Basin Perspectives), page 10, →ISBN The relationships between universal norms and specific norms nurture the development of international law.

Forms

plural

nurtures

past tense

nurtured

past participle

nurtured

present participle

nurturing

third person singular

nurtures