Library / English Dictionary

SUCKLING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Feeding an infant by giving suck at the breast

Synonyms:

lactation; suckling

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("suckling" is a kind of...):

alimentation; feeding (the act of supplying food and nourishment)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A young mammal that has not been weaned

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("suckling" is a kind of...):

young mammal (any immature mammal)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An infant considered in relation to its nurse

Synonyms:

nurseling; nursling; suckling

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("suckling" is a kind of...):

babe; baby; infant (a very young child (birth to 1 year) who has not yet begun to walk or talk)

Sense 4

Meaning:

English poet and courtier (1609-1642)

Synonyms:

Sir John Suckling; Suckling

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Instance hypernyms:

courtier (an attendant at the court of a sovereign)

poet (a writer of poems (the term is usually reserved for writers of good poetry))

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

-ing form of the verb suckle

Credits

 Context examples: 

After being long fed with hopes of a speedy visit from Mr. and Mrs. Suckling, the Highbury world were obliged to endure the mortification of hearing that they could not possibly come till the autumn.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I always say there is something direful in the sound: but nothing more is positively known of the Tupmans, though a good many things I assure you are suspected; and yet by their manners they evidently think themselves equal even to my brother, Mr. Suckling, who happens to be one of their nearest neighbours.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

It was not with Mrs. Suckling, it was not with Mrs. Bragge, but in felicity and splendour it fell short only of them: it was with a cousin of Mrs. Bragge, an acquaintance of Mrs. Suckling, a lady known at Maple Grove.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Impossible that any situation could be more replete with comfort; if we except, perhaps, Mrs. Suckling's own family, and Mrs. Bragge's; but Mrs. Smallridge is intimate with both, and in the very same neighbourhood:—lives only four miles from Maple Grove.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)