ENGLISH
REFERENCE

nursery

n.
US //ˈnɝsɝi// UK //nˈɜːsəɹi// nurs·ery
  1. 1 childcare centre (n.)
    B1 Intermediate British English Education

    a place where young children are cared for while their parents are at work.

    an establishment providing day care for children who are not yet old enough to attend primary school.

    Example

    She drops her daughter off at the nursery every morning before heading to the office.

    Example

    The local council has increased funding for community nurseries to ensure that working parents have access to affordable early childhood education.
  2. 2 baby's bedroom (n.)
    B1 Intermediate

    a room in a house that is specially designed for a baby or small child.

    a room within a private residence set apart for the use of an infant or young children.

    Example

    They spent the weekend painting the nursery a soft yellow for the new baby.

    Example

    The interior designer suggested installing blackout curtains in the nursery to help the infant maintain a consistent sleep schedule during the bright summer months.
  3. 3 plant garden (n.)
    B2 Upper Intermediate Horticulture

    a place where plants and trees are grown and sold to the public.

    a commercial establishment where plants are propagated and grown to a usable size for sale to gardeners or for use in landscaping.

    Example

    We went to the local nursery to buy some rose bushes for the front garden.

    Example

    The wholesale nursery specialises in native shrubs that are drought-resistant and suitable for the local climate.
  4. 4 place of growth (n.)
    C1 Advanced Literary

    a place or situation that helps something new to grow or develop.

    a place, person, or thing that fosters, nurtures, or promotes the growth and development of something else.

    Example

    The small university became a nursery for many great scientific ideas.

    Example

    Historians often describe the coffee houses of the eighteenth century as a nursery for radical political thought and intellectual debate.
  5. 5 billiards shot (n.)
    C2 Proficiency Technical Sport

    a type of shot in the game of billiards where the balls are kept very close together.

    a series of carom shots in which the balls are kept in close proximity to facilitate a high score.

    Example

    The professional player maintained control of the table with a perfect nursery shot.

    Example

    Mastering the nursery cannon requires immense delicacy of touch to keep the object balls from separating across the baize.
    • nursery cannon
Origin

From Middle English noricerie, norserye (“children's nursery; state of being fostered or nursed; education, upbringing”) [and other forms], from Old French norricerie, nourricerie, from norrice, nourrice (modern French nourrice (“childminder, nanny; wet nurse”)) + -erie (suffix forming feminine nouns). Norrice and nourrice are derived from Late Latin nūtrīcia (“wet nurse”), from Latin nūtrīcius (“that nurses or suckles; nourishing”), from nūtriō (“to breastfeed, nurse, suckle”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)neh₂- (“to flow”). The English word may be analysed as nourice, nurse + -ery (suffix forming nouns meaning ‘place of’).

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Related words

Last updated June 20, 2026