wean
[ween]
- to accustom (a child or young animal) to food other than its mother's milk; cause to lose the need to suckle or turn to the mother for food.
- 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.
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- wean on, to accustom to; to familiarize with from, or as if from, childhood: a brilliant student weaned on the classics; suburban kids weaned on rock music.
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Origin of wean
before 1000; Middle English wenen, Old English wenian; cognate with Dutch wennen, German gewöhnen, Old Norse venja to accustom
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for wean
Contemporary Examples
“Since MGP whiskey is [more than] 80 percent of my revenues, it might be silly to wean myself off of that,” Perkins says.
The court postponed execution of the sentence, to give her time to recover from childbirth and to wean the new baby.
Direct payments came into being in 1996, originally as an effort to wean farmers off of direct government subsides altogether.
But it was Carter who first crusaded for the U.S. to wean itself off of its dependence on oil.
“I was trying to wean him off,” Murray said to the detectives.
Historical Examples
But I might have known that she could not, all at once, wean herself from the trumpery.
The Bacillus of BeautyHarriet Stark
I wrote Turner Simpson to send you the pup when it was old enough to wean.
Watch Yourself Go ByAl. G. Field
Did she wish to wean the tempestuous Judy from her old friends?
Molly Brown's Senior DaysNell Speed
No good can come of his intimacy with Bigot; Amlie, you must wean him from it.
The Golden DogWilliam Kirby
It's a thrawn-fac'd wean that's gotten against the father's will.
The Proverbs of ScotlandAlexander Hislop
wean1
- to cause (a child or young mammal) to replace mother's milk by other nourishment
- (usually foll by from) to cause to desert former habits, pursuits, etc
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Word Origin
Old English wenian to accustom; related to German gewöhnen to get used to
wean2
- Scot and Northern English dialect a child; infant
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Word Origin
a contraction of wee ane or perhaps a shortened form of weanling
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for wean
v.
Old English wenian "to accustom," from Proto-Germanic *wanjanan (cf. Old Norse venja, Dutch wennen, Old High German giwennan, German gewöhnen "to accustom"), from *wanaz "accustomed" (related to wont). The sense of weaning a child from the breast in Old English was generally expressed by gewenian or awenian, which has a sense of "unaccustom" (cf. German abgewöhnen, entwöhnen "to wean," literally "to unaccustom"). The prefix subsequently wore off. Figurative extension to any pursuit or habit is from 1520s.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
wean
(wēn)- To deprive permanently of breast milk and begin to nourish with other food.
- To accustom the young of a mammal to take nourishment other than by suckling.
- To gradually withdraw from a life-support system.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.