wean

American  

[ween] / win /

verb (used with object)

• weans,
  present (3rd person singular)
• weaned,
  past participle,  past
• weaning
  present participle

1. 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.

2. 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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verb phrase

1. 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.

wean ¹ British  

/ wiːn /

verb

1. to cause (a child or young mammal) to replace mother's milk by other nourishment

2. (usually foll by from) to cause to desert former habits, pursuits, etc

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wean ² British  

/ weɪn, wiːn /

noun

1. dialect a child; infant

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• weanedness
  noun
• weaning
  noun
• postweaning
  adjective
• preweaning
  adjective
• unweaned
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• weaning
  present
• weaned
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• wean
  simple
• weans
  simple
• have weaned
  perfect
• has weaned
  perfect
• am weaning
  progressive
• are weaning
  progressive
• is weaning
  progressive
• have been weaning
  perfect progressive
• has been weaning
  perfect progressive

Past

• weaned
  simple
• had weaned
  perfect
• was weaning
  progressive
• were weaning
  progressive
• had been weaning
  perfect progressive

Future

• will wean
  simple
• will have weaned
  perfect
• will be weaning
  progressive
• will have been weaning
  perfect progressive

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

wean weans weaned weaning

A major risk for the four leading hyperscalers is that competing labs will develop their own computing infrastructure and wean themselves off existing clouds, he said.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 9, 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

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. aims to help wean some Americans off psychiatric medications, including antidepressants.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is announcing steps that he said are aimed at helping wean some Americans off psychiatric medications, including antidepressants.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 4, 2026

But when Zuraiq could finally eat grass and grains, Father covered the mother goat’s udders in order to wean Zuraiq.

From "Tasting the Sky" by Ibtisam Barakat

As Europe weans itself off Russian energy, Washington is fast emerging as its largest gas supplier, with experts suggesting Croatia's Adriatic gas terminal offers a pathway deeper into the continent.

From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026

Customs delays, tariff uncertainty and soaring global demand have hiked solar costs and delayed projects as the U.S. weans itself off Chinese dependence.

From Reuters ● Mar. 3, 2023

Jen's job was set up to help what young people themselves call the "Covid weans" - youngsters who started the pandemic as children and emerged as teenagers.

From BBC ● Dec. 15, 2022

Over the next several decades, however, the energy pull on the grid will increase significantly, as will demand from other electric sources as the country weans itself off of fossil fuels.

From Scientific American ● Sep. 19, 2022

The Lady said she’d raised six weans of her own and five o’ them lads, eight o’ someone else’s lads wouldn’t be much different.

From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein

Born into a nominally liberated time for women, our Gen X girlhood was a specific kind of confusing: Yes, we were weaned on “Free to Be You and Me.”

From Salon ● Jun. 12, 2026

"I think that it's time that we weaned ourselves from the remaining military support," he told CBS News's 60 Minutes.

From Barron's ● May 16, 2026

Three decades after they became Britain's biggest bands, interest in both is still huge - among their original fans and a new generation who were weaned on their songs.

From BBC ● Feb. 16, 2026

As January drew to a close, I weaned myself off the motivational videos.

From Slate ● Feb. 15, 2026

But we heard a coyote howl upwind and we heard a cow bawling for her late weaned bairn.

From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck

After years of priming us to expect speedy deliveries, the ever-growing e-commerce economy is weaning us off them—and no one seems to mind.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 7, 2026

In two-week-old mice, before weaning, dendritic spines were spread relatively evenly across the neuron.

From Science Daily ● Jan. 16, 2026

In the longer term, the deal won’t do anything to stop China’s strategic goal of weaning itself off U.S. soybeans, Suderman said.

From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2025

The other brands featured in the investigation – Heinz, Piccolo, Little Freddie, Aldi and Lidl - said their products were intended as a complementary part of a child's varied weaning diet.

From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2025

Others, weaning belches, lodged in his chest and caused massive heartburn.

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole

Related Words

• discourage