From Middle English wenen, from Old English wenian, from Proto-Germanic *wanjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁-.

• enPR: wēn, IPA: /wiːn/

wean (weans, present participle weaning; simple past and past participle weaned)

1. (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.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Genesis 21:8 ↗:

     Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.

2. (intransitive) To cease to depend on the mother's milk for nutrition.

   The kittens are finally weaning.

3. (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.

4. (intransitive, by extension) To cease to depend.

   She is weaning from her addiction to tobacco.

5. (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

• French: sevrer
• German: entwöhnen
• Russian: (breastfeeding) отвыкать от груди

• IPA: /ˈwiː(ə)n/, /ˈweɪ(ə)n/, [weːn]

wean (plural weans)

1. (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.