| Library / English Dictionary |
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:
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:
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
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)
