nourished

Meanings

1. 1verbtransitive

   Past tense and past participle of nourish: gave a person, animal or plant the food needed to stay healthy and grow.

   Grammar: Takes an object: the soil nourished the plants. Often passive: the children were well nourished.

   Patterns

   • nourish someone with something
   • be nourished by something

   The mother nourished her baby with milk for the first six months.

   Rain nourished the fields after weeks of drought.

   The patients were nourished through a tube while they recovered.

2. 2verbtransitivefigurative

   Past tense and past participle of nourish in a figurative sense: supported an idea, feeling or talent so that it developed.

   Grammar: Takes an object: she nourished a hope.

   Patterns

   • nourish a hope
   • nourish something with something

   Her teacher nourished her love of music from an early age.

   The community nourished the project with time and donations.

   He nourished a quiet hope that his brother would return.

3. 3adjectivecomparable

   Having enough good food to be healthy and strong.

   Grammar: Often used with well or poorly, and after a verb: the children look well nourished.

   Patterns

   • well nourished
   • poorly nourished

   The well nourished calves grew quickly.

   Poorly nourished children often struggle to concentrate at school.

   She felt rested and nourished after the long meal.

Common combinations

well nourished

The well nourished plants grew tall.

poorly nourished

Poorly nourished patients heal more slowly.

nourished by

The roots are nourished by the rich soil.

adequately nourished

Schools want every pupil to be adequately nourished.

feel nourished

After the soup I felt warm and nourished.

Synonyms and how they differ

fed

Fed is a plain word for being given food, while nourished suggests the food was good enough to keep you healthy.

sustained

Sustained means kept going over time, and need not involve food at all.

nurtured

Nurtured is mainly about caring for growth, often of people or talents, with less focus on food.

fostered

Fostered is used for encouraging ideas or relationships and is rarely used for food.

Opposites

Word family

nourish verb

to supply with food or support growth

nourishment noun

food or support needed to grow

nourishing adjective

giving good food that helps you grow

malnourished adjective

suffering from a lack of proper food

Commonly confused: nourished or nurtured?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “nourished”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

Explore more words