WEAN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does wean mean? 

• WEAN (verb)
  The verb WEAN has 2 senses:

1. gradually deprive (infants and young mammals) of mother's milk

2. detach the affections of

  Familiarity information: WEAN used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WEAN (verb)

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

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Synonyms:

ablactate; wean

Context example:

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

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

 Context examples 

Skulls of young fragile through weaning.

(IR, Rat Strain, NCI Thesaurus)

Arsenic was then given to the offspring after weaning, and all through adulthood at concentrations relevant to human exposure.

(Low doses of arsenic cause cancer in male mice, NIH)

He does not let business wean him from the little cares and duties that affect us all, and I try not to let domestic worries destroy my interest in his pursuits.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The strain has a low reproductive performance with small litter sizes at birth and weaning.

(AKR/J Mouse, NCI Thesaurus)

The A strain has intermediate breeding performance with a high ratio of females at birth and a low litter size at weaning.

(A/J Mouse, NCI Thesaurus)

The first of those sorrows which are sent to wean us from the earth had visited her, and its dimming influence quenched her dearest smiles.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The stress of travel also extends to piglets, such as when they’re weaned from their mothers and transported to nursery barns.

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

For years I had gradually weaned him from that drug mania which had threatened once to check his remarkable career.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The twins no longer derive their sustenance from Nature's founts—in short, said Mr. Micawber, in one of his bursts of confidence, they are weaned—and Mrs. Micawber is, at present, my travelling companion.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Often when she woke Jo found Beth reading in her well-worn little book, heard her singing softly, to beguile the sleepless night, or saw her lean her face upon her hands, while slow tears dropped through the transparent fingers, and Jo would lie watching her with thoughts too deep for tears, feeling that Beth, in her simple, unselfish way, was trying to wean herself from the dear old life, and fit herself for the life to come, by sacred words of comfort, quiet prayers, and the music she loved so well.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)