wet nurse

See also: wetnurse and wet-nurse

English

Alternative forms

• wet-nurse, wetnurse

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

wet nurse (plural wet nurses)

1. A woman hired to suckle another woman's child.

   Coordinate term: dry nurse

2. (figuratively, by extension) Someone who treats someone else with excessive care.

Translations

woman hired to suckle another woman's child

• Abkhaz: please add this translation if you can
• Adyghe: please add this translation if you can
• Afrikaans: please add this translation if you can
• Aghwan: please add this translation if you can
• Akan: please add this translation if you can
• Aklanon: please add this translation if you can
• Albanian: mendeshë f
• Arabic: ظِئْر (ẓiʔr), دَايَة f (dāya)

  Gulf Arabic: داية f (dāya)

• Armenian: ծծմայր (hy) (ccmayr), ստնտու (hy) (stntu)
• Belarusian: кармі́целька f (karmícjelʹka)
• Bulgarian: кърма́чка f (kǎrmáčka), до́йка f (dójka)
• Catalan: dida (ca) f, dida seca (ca) f, nodrissa (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 乳母 (zh) (rǔmǔ), 奶媽 / 奶妈 (zh) (nǎimā)

• Czech: kojná (cs) f
• Danish: amme (da) c
• Dutch: zoogmoeder f, min (nl) f, zoogster (nl) f, voedster (nl) f, minne (nl) f, minnemoeder f
• Egyptian: (mnꜥt)
• Esperanto: nutristino
• Estonian: amm (et)
• Faroese: bróstmóðir f
• Finnish: imettäjä (fi)
• French: nourrice (fr) f
• Galician: ama (gl) f, ama de leite f
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Säugamme f, Amme (de) f
• Greek: τροφός (el) f (trofós), παραμάνα (el) f (paramána)

  Ancient: τροφός f (trophós), τιθήνη f (tithḗnē)

• Gurani: دایانە (dāyāna)
• Hebrew: מֵינֶקֶת (he) f (meinéket)
• Hungarian: (szoptatós (hu)) dajka (hu)
• Icelandic: brjóstmóðir f
• Irish: banaltra chíche f, bean oiliúna f, bean altrama f
• Italian: balia (it)
• Japanese: 乳母 (ja) (うば, uba, おんば, onba, ちうば, chiuba, ちおも, chiomo, にゅうぼ, nyūbo, まま, mama, めのと, menoto)
• Khmer: មេដោះ (km) (mee dɑh)
• Korean: 유모(乳母) (ko) (yumo)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: دایان (dayan), دایەن (dayen)

  Northern Kurdish: dayan, dayîn (ku)

• Latin: nūtrix (la) f, altrix f
• Latvian: zīdītāja f
• Livonian: äm
• Macedonian: доилка f (doilka), дојница f (dojnica)
• Malay: ibu susuan
• Middle English: norice
• Mon: မိဂမဴတှ် (mnw), ၝဲဂမဴ
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: amme (no) m or f

• Old Church Slavonic:

  Cyrillic: баба f (baba)

• Persian: دایه (fa) (dāye)
• Polish: mamka (pl) f
• Portuguese: ama de leite (pt) f
• Romanian: doică (ro) f
• Russian: корми́лица (ru) f (kormílica), ма́мка (ru) f (mámka) (dated)
• Sardinian:

  Campidanese: dida

  Logudorese: tatàya

• Sassarese: tadàia
• Scottish Gaelic: muime-chìche f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: до̀јӣља f

  Roman: dòjīlja (sh) f

• Sicilian: mammana (scn) f, nurrizza (scn) f
• Slovak: kojná f, dojka (sk) f
• Slovene: dojílja (sl) f
• Spanish: nodriza (es) f, pasiega (es) f, ama de leche f, ama de cría f, criandera f, chichigua f, aña (es) f
• Sranan Tongo: mena
• Sundanese: ᮞᮥᮞ᮪ᮒᮨᮁ ᮘᮞᮩᮂ (suster baseuh)
• Swedish: amma (sv) c
• Tagalog: sisiwa, mamay
• Thai: แม่นม (th) (mɛ̂ɛ-nom)
• Tibetan: ནུ་སྦྱིན་མ་ཚབ (nu sbyin ma tshab)
• Turkish: sütanne (tr)
• Turkmen: please add this translation if you can
• Ugaritic: 𐎎𐎌𐎐𐎖𐎚 (mšnqt)
• Ukrainian: годува́льниця f (hoduválʹnycja), годівни́ця f (hodivnýcja), ма́мка f (mámka)
• Urdu: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: vú nuôi
• Volapük: (♂♀) sügan (vo), (♂, in science fiction) hisügan, (♀) jisügan, (♂, in science fiction) miligafat, (♀) miligamot
• Yiddish: אַם f (am), זייגערין f (zeygerin)

someone who treats someone else with excessive care

• Russian: ня́нька (ru) f (njánʹka)
• Spanish: consentidor (es) m, consentidora (es) f

Verb

wet nurse (third-person singular simple present wet nurses, present participle wet nursing, simple past and past participle wet nursed)

1. (transitive) To act as a wet nurse (in either sense).