wetnurse
- noun
- /ˈwɛtˌnɜrs/
- Archaic
:
nodriza
- Giovanni and Caterina Morelli arranged for their son Antonio's wetnurse to become godmother to another of their children and even to one of Giovanni's brother's children.
Examples
-
While some writers wrote only for other physicians (Walter Harris, for example, published his treatise in Latin) , most directed their advice at women: midwives, professional baby nurses, wetnurses, and mothers.
Academic text (1994) -
The new mother hired a wetnurse to help feed her newborn during the first few weeks.
-
Like choosing a midwife as a comother, choosing a wetnurse as a comother represented one way to reward people who had aided the family.
Academic text (1995) -
In the past, many families employed a wetnurse to provide breast milk for their infants.
-
She worked as a wetnurse, caring for several babies over the years while their mothers returned to work.
Synonyms
3
6.8
A woman who feeds another person's baby with her milk and cares for the baby
A woman who breastfeeds and cares for another family's baby in the home
A woman who feeds another person's baby with her own milk
How Caring
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Wetnurse comes from the two parts wet (originally meaning 'wet with milk') and nurse ('to feed and care'), so a wetnurse is a woman who is hired to breastfeed and look after another person's baby.