Definition of "wet nurse" [wet• nurse]

• A woman who suckles another woman's child. (noun)
• One who treats another with excessive care or solicitude. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The wet nurse needed by little Mary, though doubtless the essential necessity of the time, would not add to the domestic comfort, especially to that of Miss Louisa Jones, a friend of Harriet Godwin, who had been installed to superintend Godwin's household."
• "Only men of gentry affected underdrawers, and women of every station suckled their young, leaving the civilized trade of wet nurse unknown."
• "The doctor advised a wet nurse and suggested Mrs. Alonzo Prentiss — probably one of his patients — who had recently lost her baby in childbirth."