† nurse-fathern.
Obsolete.
A foster-father. Chiefly figurative.
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society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > kinsman or relation > parent > father > [noun] > foster-father
foster-fathera800
nouricea1393
nurrior1487
nursing father1535
nurse-father1564
nourish-fatherc1598
nourice-father1609
1564 Briefe Exam. sig. **4 Kynges shalbe thy Nursefathers.
1608 King James VI & I in 3rd Rep. Royal Comm. Hist. MSS (1872) 414/1 We doe acknowledge ourselves in duty to God bound to be a nurse-father of his Church.
1644 J. Maxwell Sacro-sancta Regum Majestas 11 I pray you consider what encouragement is it for Kings and Monarchs to become Nurse-fathers of the Reformed Church.
1714 J. Fortescue-Aland Fortescue's Governance of Eng. 123 The verb bajulando, to carry in one's arms, as the Nurse-Fathers used to do the children that were put to them to nurse.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online September 2019).
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n.1564