wean

verb

1. (transitive)To cease giving breast milk to an offspring; to accustom and reconcile (a child or young animal) to a want or deprivation of mother's milk; to take from the breast or udder.

   “The cow has weaned her calf.”

   “Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.”

2. (broadly, often, transitive)To cease giving breast milk to an offspring; to accustom and reconcile (a child or young animal) to a want or deprivation of mother's milk; to take from the breast or udder.

   “His generation was weaned on 1980's music.”

3. (intransitive)To cease to depend on the mother's milk for nutrition.

   “The kittens are finally weaning.”

4. (broadly, transitive)To cause to quit something to which one is addicted, dependent, or habituated.

   “He managed to wean himself off heroin.”

   “With Marvin getting older ... and walking now ... I thought it was time to start weaning him off of his bottle.”

   “The troubles of age were intended […] to wean us gradually from our fondness of life.”

   “Dalai Lama: "Then, I suggested, “Drink much less vodka.” Instead of that, they traditionally also drink horse milk—" Oliver: "Wait, hold on, you tried to wean them off vodka by giving them horse milk?" Dalai Lama: "Oh yes, and they follow."”

5. (broadly, intransitive)To cease to depend.

   “She is weaning from her addiction to tobacco.”

6. (broadly, obsolete, transitive)To raise, to help grow toward maturity

   “For they are friends that help to weane my ſtate, Till men and kingdomes help to ſtrengthen it: […]”

noun

1. (Scotland)A young child.

   “I, being but a yearling wean.”

   “And there were darker tales in the countryside, of weans stolen, of lassies misguided, of innocent beasts cruelly tortured, and in one and all there came in the name of the wife of the Skerburnfoot.”

   “‘While I was his ward, he treated me no worse as a wean about the place than one of his own boys.’”

   “Pigs, cows and sheep and wee ducks, that was what he bought and it was just for weans and wee lasses. I said it to my maw. Oh it is not weans it is children. Oh Kieron, it is children and girls, do not say weans and lasses.”

name

1. A locality in the Gunnedah council area and the Narrabri council area, northern New South Wales, Australia.