suckle

suckle

English

A mother suckling an infant (painting by Mosè Bianchi)

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsʌ.kəl/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌkəl

Noun

suckle (plural suckles)

1. (obsolete) A teat.
   • 1638, Thomas Herbert, Some yeares travels into divers parts of Asia and Afrique, London: Jacob Blome and Richard Bishop, “Travels begun Anno 1626,” Book 1, p. 26,

     […] the body of this fish [the Mannatee] is commonly 3 yards long and one broad, slow in swimming, wanting fins, in their place ayded with 2 paps which are not only suckles but stilts to creep a shoare upon such time she grazes […]

2. An act of suckling

   The baby was having a suckle at its mother's breast.

Verb

suckle (third-person singular simple present suckles, present participle suckling, simple past and past participle suckled)

1. (transitive) To give suck to; to nurse at the breast, udder, or dugs.
   • c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene iii]:

     […] the breasts of Hecuba
     When she did suckle Hector, looked not lovelier
     Than Hector’s forehead when it spit forth blood
     At Grecian sword, contemning.

   • 1824, Walter Savage Landor, “The Lord Brooke and Sir Philip Sidney”, in Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, volume I, London: […] Taylor and Hessey, […], OCLC 35810401, page 35:

     Let us indulge them; they are not weak, suckled by Wisdom, taught to walk by Virtue.

2. (intransitive) To nurse; to suck milk from a nursing mother.
   • 1931, Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth, New York: Modern Library, 1944, Chapter 4, p. 35,

     But out of the woman’s great brown breast the milk gushed forth for the child, milk as white as snow, and when the child suckled at one breast it flowed like a fountain from the other, and she let it flow.

3. (transitive) To nurse from (a breast, nursing mother, etc.).
   • 1982, Bernard Malamud, God’s Grace, New York: Avon, 1983, p. 60

     Buz attempted to suckle his left nipple.

   • 1997, Ridley Pearson, Beyond Recognition, New York: Hyperion, p. 129,

     She opened her eyes slightly, like a person drugged—dreamy and quiet. The baby suckled her.

Derived terms

• suckling

Translations

to give suck to

Arabic: رَضَّعَ‎ (raḍḍaʿa) Egyptian Arabic: رضع‎ (raḍaʿ) Armenian: please add this translation if you can Aromanian: alãptedz Bulgarian: кърмя (bg) (kǎrmja) Catalan: alletar (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 餵奶／喂奶 (zh) (wèinǎi), 哺乳 (zh) (bǔrǔ), 母乳餵養／母乳喂养 (zh) (mǔrǔ wèiyǎng) Czech: kojit (cs) Dutch: zogen (nl) Esperanto: mamnutri Finnish: imettää (fi) French: allaiter (fr) (transitive) Friulian: latâ Georgian: please add this translation if you can German: stillen (de) Gothic: 𐌳𐌰𐌳𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (daddjan) Greek: θηλάζω (el) (thilázo) Ancient: θηλάζω (thēlázō) Hungarian: szoptat (hu) Ido: alaktar (io), mamsugar Indonesian: menyusui (id) Irish: tál Italian: allattare (it) Japanese: 授乳する (ja) (じゅにゅうする, junyū suru) Khmer: បំបៅ (km) (bɑmbaw) Ladino: alechar Latin: nūtriō Latvian: zīdīt Macedonian: дои (doi) Maori: whakangotengote, whakangote Mongolian: please add this translation if you can Occitan: alachar (oc), alaitar (oc), far popar, atessar Old Church Slavonic: доити (doiti) Polish: karmić mlekiem, wykarmić Portuguese: amamentar (pt) Romani: chuchi del Romanian: alăpta (ro) Russian: корми́ть гру́дью impf (kormítʹ grúdʹju), вска́рмливать (ru) impf (vskármlivatʹ) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: до̀јити Roman: dòjiti (sh) Spanish: amamantar (es) Swedish: amma (sv), dia (sv), dägga (sv) Thai: please add this translation if you can Turkish: emzirmek (tr), meme vermek (tr) Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can Volapük: sügön (vo), nimafön Westrobothnian: daatt Yiddish: זייגן‎ (zeygn)

to nurse; to suck

Arabic: رَضِعَ‎ (raḍiʿa) Bulgarian: бозая (bg) (bozaja) Dutch: zuigen (nl) Finnish: imeä (fi) French: téter (fr) German: säugen (de) Greek: θηλάζω (el) (thilázo), βυζαίνω (el) (vyzaíno) Ancient: θηλάζω (thēlázō) Indonesian: menyusu (id) Irish: diúl Italian: poppare (it) Latin: nūtriō Latvian: zīst Macedonian: дои (doi) Maori: whāngote Occitan: mamar, popar (oc) Old Irish: ibid Portuguese: mamar (pt) Romanian: suge (ro) Russian: соса́ть грудь (sosátʹ grudʹ) Spanish: mamar (es) Swedish: dia (sv) Volapük: sugön (vo)

Anagrams

• Leucks, Luckes, Luecks

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Hunsrik

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsuklə/

Verb

suckle

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Further reading

• Online Hunsrik Dictionary