nursewear

English

Nurses wearing a traditional uniform consisting of a dress, apron and cap

Etymology

From nurse +‎ -wear.

Noun

nursewear (uncountable)

1. Clothing to be worn by nurses.
   • 1939 October 2, Evening Standard, number 35,906, London, page 3:

     Showing British Woollen Frocks . . . American Afternoon Frocks . . . Air Raid Emergency Suits, Landwear and Nursewear, including British Red Cross Uniforms!

   • 1955, Air Power; the Air Forces’ Quarterly, page 293:

     They also manufacture clerical collars, plastic fronts and nursewear.

   • 1972 February 1, “$8.50 News for Nurses”, in Daily Independent Journal, volume 111, number 269, San Rafael, Calif., page 14:

     Smart dress­es and pantsuits . . . in our crisp new line of nursewear.

   • 1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest, Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 895:

     This nurse looked like something out of a racy-nursewear catalogue, like somebody that had to detour blocks out of her way to avoid construction sites at lunchtime.

   • 2004, David Levithan, The Realm of Possibility, Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 175:

     Meg gravitated towards the costumes, openly wondering about the nursewear.

   • 2012, Richard Milward, Kimberly’s Capital Punishment, Faber and Faber, →ISBN, page 187:

     Polly’s dressing-up box was full of good disguises. Quite a few had an erotic slant – for instance, nursewear, policewear, full bondage gear – but I wanted to hide from Mr Death, not be chased by him like a malnourished Benny Hill.

   • 2017, Michael Perry, “Mike Is a Nurse”, in Danger, Man Working: Writing from the Heart, the Gut, and the Poison Ivy Patch, Wisconsin Historical Society Press, →ISBN, section “Men Among Men”, page 37:

     I never did get a little white cap. A few hardcore purists still wear one with defiant pride, but these days classic nursewear is mostly relegated to cheesy porn.

Further reading

• Nurse uniform on Wikipedia.Wikipedia