wet-nurse

verb

ˈwet-ˌnərs How to pronounce wet-nurse (audio)
Definition of wet-nursenext
1
as in to nurse
to give milk to from the breast wet-nursed the woman's baby until she was well enough to do it herself

Synonyms & Similar Words

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2
as in to spoil
to treat with great or excessive care recent college grads quickly learn that employers won't wet-nurse them the way that their teachers did

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of wet-nurse With nowhere else to turn, Karoline takes on the role of a wet-nurse. — Nancy Tartaglione, Deadline, 19 Sep. 2024 In von Horn’s pic, set in post WW1 Copenhagen, the focal point is Karoline (Sonne), a young pregnant factory worker, who takes on the job of a wet-nurse for the charismatic Dagmar (Dyrholm) in order to escape poverty. — Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 19 May 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wet-nurse
  1. nurse
  2. spoil
  3. suckle
  4. baby
  5. mother
Verb
  • Bordelon first learned about nursing through his aunt, who was a nurse.
    — Andrea Hsu, NPR, 21 July 2026
  • South Korean retail investors who piled into leveraged bets on the country’s AI champions are nursing steep losses, exposing the risks of the speculative trading boom that helped fuel one of the world’s hottest equity markets.
    — Joseph Wilkins, CNBC, 21 July 2026
Definition of nurse
Verb
  • As Tom Holland’s summer blockbusters take over the big screen, X has spoiled yet another one of the actor’s theatrical releases.
    — Glenn Garner, Deadline, 31 July 2026
  • Ballot spoiling was the subject of a 2022 lawsuit brought by a Republican group.
    — Scott Bauer, Twin Cities, 29 July 2026
Definition of spoil
Verb
  • The pups have the epicurean delight of suckling one of the highest fat-content milks in the animal kingdom.
    — John Metcalfe, Mercury News, 24 Nov. 2025
  • Those people under him are suckling on his piggly-wiggly titties.
    — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 10 Nov. 2025
Definition of suckle
Verb
  • No one’s babying him (at Houston).
    — David Aldridge, New York Times, 21 June 2026
  • Could baby owls and eagles be the key to stopping the spread of bird flu?
    — John Lauritsen, CBS News, 11 June 2026
Definition of baby
Verb
  • The new cub's arrival marks the first time Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium has had a lion birth since July 2020, when lioness Abana mothered three cubs.
    — Finch Walker, USA Today, 17 June 2026
  • Virginia Dulles was the opposite of Louanne Bixby—even a hundred children couldn’t exhaust her need to mother them.
    — Jonathan Franzen, New Yorker, 1 June 2026
Definition of mother

Browse Nearby Words

wetness
wet-nurse
wet-nursed
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Wet-nurse.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wet-nurse. Accessed 4 Aug. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on wet-nurse

Nglish: Translation of wet-nurse for Spanish Speakers

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