wean
Americanverb (used with object)
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to accustom (a child or young animal) to food other than mother's milk; cause to lose the need to suckle or turn to the mother for food.
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to withdraw (a person, the affections, one's dependency, etc.) from some object, habit, form of enjoyment, or the like.
The need to reduce had weaned us from rich desserts.
verb phrase
verb
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to cause (a child or young mammal) to replace mother's milk by other nourishment
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(usually foll by from) to cause to desert former habits, pursuits, etc
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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weansimple
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weanssimple
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have weanedperfect
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has weanedperfect
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am weaningprogressive
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are weaningprogressive
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is weaningprogressive
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have been weaningperfect progressive
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has been weaningperfect progressive
Past
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weanedsimple
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had weanedperfect
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was weaningprogressive
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were weaningprogressive
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had been weaningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of wean
First recorded before 1000; Middle English wenen, Old English wenian; cognate with Dutch wennen, German gewöhnen, Old Norse venja “to accustom”
Explanation
To wean yourself from something is to gradually eliminate that thing from your life. You may want to wean yourself from watching too much TV, drinking two pots of coffee every morning, or obsessively reading the celebrity columns. To wean an infant — human or animal — you gradually reduce consumption of mother’s milk or bottled milk until the little one is no longer nursing or bottle-feeding. If you want to wean yourself from eating chocolate chip cookies, go from eating eight a day to only seven for the next few days, then to six for a few days and so on until you're no longer eating any chocolate chip cookies.
Vocabulary lists containing wean
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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.
The availability of cheap Chinese electric vehicles and solar panels also gives more options to countries trying to wean themselves off fossil-fuel imports.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 9, 2026
Still, Chelsea are attempting to wean themselves off chaos and into the stability seen at Arsenal or previously at Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp.
From BBC • May 16, 2026
"I think that it's time that we wean ourselves from the remaining military support" from the Pentagon, he added.
From Barron's • May 10, 2026
The next minute, another says: "I'm firmly of the view we must not doomscroll our way through leaders - we have to wean ourselves off it."
From BBC • May 2, 2026
Arthur had managed to wean Sir Aglovale from his revenge, it is true, and the old feud seemed to have healed over.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
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.
