suckle
/ˈsʌk.əl/ noun, verb
Forms suckles suckling suckled
- noun (obsolete) A teat.
- noun An act of suckling “The baby was having a suckle at its mother's breast.”
- verb (transitive) To give suck to; to nurse at the breast, udder, or dugs.
- verb (intransitive) To nurse; to suck milk from a nursing mother.
- verb (transitive) To nurse from (a breast, nursing mother, etc.).
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English sukelen; probably a back-formation of Middle English sukeling (“a suckling; infant”), formally equivalent to suck + -le (frequentative suffix). See suckling.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A teat. [Obs.] Sir T. Herbert.
- verb To give suck to; to nurse at the breast. Addison.
- verb To nurse; to suck. [R.]
Etymology [Freq. of suck.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “suckle”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details