Nurse

A woman who breast-feeds an infant.

The child's mother as nurse

Genesis 21:7 See also 1 Kings 3:21

She added, “Who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

A servant as nurse

Exodus 2:7 See also Exodus 2:9

Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call one of the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?”

Often wet-nurses remained in the family after the child was weaned

Genesis 24:56–59 See also Genesis 35:8; 2 Samuel 4:4; 2 Kings 11:2–3 parallel 2 Chronicles 22:11

But he replied, “Do not delay me, since the LORD has made my journey a success. Send me on my way so that I may go to my master.” So they said, “We will call the girl and ask her opinion.” They called Rebekah and asked her, “Will you go with this man?” “I will go,” she replied. So they sent their sister Rebekah on her way, along with her nurse and Abraham’s servant and his men.

Metaphorical use

Numbers 11:12 See also Isaiah 66:9–13; Lamentations 4:3

Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth, so that You should tell me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries an infant,’ to the land that You swore to give their fathers?