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tion; to nurture with care; to protect and aid. We were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children. 1 Thess. ii. 7.

One who cherishes. The cherisher of my flesh and blood. Shak.

Encouragement; comfort. [Obs.] Rich bounty and dear cherishment. Spenser.

Intimate; confidential; familiar; trusted; cherished; beloved; as, a bosom friend.

To sit over, cover, and cherish; as, a hen broods her chickens.

To cherish with care. [Obs.]

To direct special attention to; to devote time and thought to; to foster; to cherish. Leisure . . . to cultivate general literature. Wordsworth.

Dainty. [Obs.] To cherish him with diets daint. Spenser.

Highly valued; greatly beloved; cherished; precious. "Hear me, dear lady." Shak. Neither count I my life dear unto myself. Acts xx. 24. And the last joy was dearer than the rest. Pope. Dear as remember'd kisses after death. Tennyson.

To take into, or place in, the bosom; to cherish; to foster. Glad to embosom his affection. Spenser.

To cling to; to cherish; to love. Shak.

To inclose in a shrine or chest; hence, to preserve or cherish as something sacred; as, to enshrine something in memory. We will enshrine it as holy relic. Massinger.

To keep, hold, or maintain in the mind with favor; to keep in the mind; to harbor; to cherish; as, to entertain sentiments.

The act of receiving as host, or of amusing, admitting, or cherishing; hospitable reception; also, reception or treatment, in general. The entertainment of Christ by faith. Baxter. The sincere entertainment and practice of the precepts of the gospel. Bp. Sprat.

To cherish with heat; to foster. [Obs.] Which these soft fires . . . foment and warm. Milton.

The condition of the besieged in the mean time was forlorn in the extreme. Prescott. She cherished the forlorn hope that he was still living. Thomson. A forlorn hope Etym: [D. verloren hoop, prop., a lost band or troop; verloren, p.p. of verliezen to lose + hoop band; akin to E. heap. See For-, and Heap.] (Mil.), a bo…

want of due reserve or modesty. In France it is usual to bring children into company, and cherish in them, from their infancy, a kind of forwardness and assurance. Addison.

To cherish; to promote the growth of; to encourage; to sustain and promote; as, to foster genius.

A woman who feeds and cherishes; a nurse. B. Jonson.

To hold or harbor with malicioua disposition or purpose; to cherish enviously. [Obs.] Perish they That grudge one thought against your majesty ! Shak.