WEAN

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (verb)

Verb forms

Present simple: I / you / we / they wean ... he / she / it weans

Past simple: weaned

Past participle: weaned

-ing form: weaning

Sense 1

Meaning:

Gradually deprive (infants and young mammals) of mother's milk

Example:

The kitten was weaned and fed by its owner with a bottle

Synonyms:

ablactate; wean

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Hypernyms (to "wean" is one way to...):

deprive (keep from having, keeping, or obtaining)

"Wean" entails doing...:

breastfeed; give suck; lactate; nurse; suck; suckle; wet-nurse (give suck to)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

weaning (the act of substituting other food for the mother's milk in the diet of a child or young mammal)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Detach the affections of

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Hypernyms (to "wean" is one way to...):

alienate; disaffect; estrange (arouse hostility or indifference in where there had formerly been love, affection, or friendliness)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Credits

Context examples:

In the larger-scale trials, groups of piglets were transported to a nursery barn located 12 hours from where they were weaned to simulate the kinds of stress they’d experience commercially, which can diminish the young animals’ immune system function, appetite and weight gain—something antibiotics helped them recover from.

(Antibiotic Alternative Scores Well in Second Round of Swine Trials, U.S. Department of Agriculture)

She did not rebuke Jo with saintly speeches, only loved her better for her passionate affection, and clung more closely to the dear human love, from which our Father never means us to be weaned, but through which He draws us closer to Himself.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)