breast-feed
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
-
(of a baby) to nurse.
-
to nurse a baby.
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of breast-feed
First recorded in 1900–05
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
She plans to breast-feed as long as she can, aiming for a year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2025
The picture has improved a bit since then—babies now breast-feed a little longer—but the over-all pattern holds.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 18, 2019
It’s an unusual combination of autobiography, diplomatic history, moral argument and manual on how to breast-feed a child with one hand while talking to Secretary of State John Kerry on a cellphone with the other.
From New York Times ● Sep. 10, 2019
As the guards lined up the families on Tuesday night, Moore saw a woman breast-feed a toddler in the middle of the road.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 18, 2018
Another problem was that I refused to breast-feed.
From "Facing the Lion" by Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton and Herman Viola
Our reporter described the case of a healthy, breast-fed baby with good weight gain, who was struggling to sleep.
From BBC ● May 5, 2026
“We have stopped all the medicines that we were giving Aya and now she is being breast-fed when she needs,” Maarouf said by telephone from Afrin.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 13, 2023
Fewer than half the babies born in the United States were exclusively breast-fed through their first three months, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 2020 Breastfeeding Report Card.
From Reuters ● Jun. 1, 2022
Fawcett, meanwhile, was playing for the San Diego Spirit six weeks after giving birth to her third child, whom she breast-fed during halftime of games.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 7, 2022
This means that the breast-fed human infant is receiving small, but regular additions to the load of toxic chemicals building up in his body.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
Currently any drink, other than tea or coffee, with over 150mg requires a label warning of its high caffeine content that says it is not recommended for children or pregnant or breast-feeding women.
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026
Nestlé has weathered controversies before, including a U.S. boycott in the late 1970s tied to marketing baby formula as an alternative to breast-feeding in developing countries.
From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026
Xofluza can be taken by anyone age 5 or older, but isn’t recommended for pregnant or breast-feeding mothers, or those with a known hypersensitivity to baloxavir marboxil.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 12, 2026
This is why energy drinks containing over 150mg of caffeine, for example, are already required by EU law to carry labels stating: "High caffeine content. Not recommended for children or pregnant or breast-feeding women".
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2025
She is given a list of pediatricians, and coundess brochures on breast-feeding, and bonding, and immunizing, and samples of baby shampoos and Q-Tips and creams.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
