wean
Etymology 1
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Etymology 1
From Middle English wenen, from Old English wenian, from Proto-Germanic *wanjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁-.
Pronunciation Verbwean (weans, present participle weaning; simple past and past participle weaned)
- (transitive) To cease giving breast milk to an offspring; to accustom and reconcile (a child or young animal) to a want or deprivation of mother's milk; to take from the breast or udder.
- The cow has weaned her calf.
- (intransitive) To cease to depend on the mother's milk for nutrition.
- The kittens are finally weaning.
- (transitive, by extension, normally "wean off") To cause to quit something to which one is addicted, dependent, or habituated.
- He managed to wean himself off heroin.
- (intransitive, by extension) To cease to depend.
- She is weaning from her addiction to tobacco.
- (transitive, by extension, obsolete) To raise, to help grow toward maturity
- c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC ↗; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii ↗:
- For they are friends that help to weane my ſtate,
Till men and kingdomes help to ſtrengthen it: […]
- French: sevrer
- German: abstillen, entwöhnen
- Italian: svezzare
- Portuguese: desmamar
- Russian: отнимать от груди
- Spanish: destetar
- Russian: отучать от груди
- Spanish: destetar
- French: déshabituer
- Italian: disabituare
- Spanish: deshabituar, desengancharse
- IPA: /ˈwiː(ə)n/, /ˈweɪ(ə)n/, [weːn]
wean (plural weans)
- (Scotland, Mid-Ulster English, others) A young child or animal.
- 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Third Book”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857, →OCLC ↗:
- I, being but a yearling wean.
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