WEAN

wean, ablactate

(verb) gradually deprive (infants and young mammals) of motherā€™s milk; ā€œshe weaned her baby when he was 3 months old and started him on powdered milkā€; ā€œThe kitten was weaned and fed by its owner with a bottleā€

wean

(verb) detach the affections of

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology 1

Verb

wean (third-person singular simple present weans, present participle weaning, simple past and past participle weaned)

(transitive) To cease giving 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.

(intransitive) To cease to depend on the mother for nourishment.

(transitive, by extension) To cause to quit something to which one is addicted or habituated.

(intransitive, by extension) To cease to depend.

Etymology 2

Noun

wean (plural weans)

(Scotland, Ulster) A small child.

Anagrams

• Ewan, Newa, anew, wane

Source: Wiktionary


Wean, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Weaned; p. pr. & vb. n. Weaning.] Etym: [OE. wenen, AS. wenian, wennan, to accustom; akin to D. wennen, G. gewƶhnen, OHG. giwennan, Icel. venja, Sw. vƤnja, Dan. vƦnne, Icel. vanr accustomed, wont; cf. AS. awenian to wean, G. entwƶhnen. See Wont, a.]

1. To accustom and reconcile, as a child or other young animal, to a want or deprivation of mother's milk; to take from the breast or udder; to cause to cease to depend on the mother nourishment. And the child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. Gen. xxi. 8.

2. Hence, to detach or alienate the affections of, from any object of desire; to reconcile to the want or loss of anything. "Wean them from themselves." Shak. The troubles of age were intended . . . to wean us gradually from our fondness of life. Swift.

Wean, n.

Definition: A weanling; a young child. I, being but a yearling wean. Mrs. Browning.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

22 February 2025

ANALYSIS

(noun) the use of closed-class words instead of inflections: e.g., ā€˜the father of the brideā€™ instead of ā€˜the brideā€™s fatherā€™


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Coffee Trivia

The earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking as the modern beverage appeared in modern-day Yemen. In the middle of the 15th century in Sufi shrines where coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed for drinking. The Yemenis procured the coffee beans from the Ethiopian Highlands.

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