Dictionary Thesaurus Word Dynamo Quotes Reference Translator Spanish

wean

[ween]

verb (used with object)

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.

Verb phrase

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.

:10

:09

:08

:07

:06

:05

:04

:03

:02

:01

Wean is a GRE word you need to know.

So is dote. Does it mean:

male of the honeybee and other bees, stingless and making no honey

bestow or express excessive love or fondness habitually

LEARN MORE GRE WORDS WITH WORD DYNAMO...

Origin:
before 1000; Middle English wenen, Old English wenian; cognate with Dutch wennen, German gewöhnen, Old Norse venja to accustom

Related forms

wean·ed·ness

[wee-nid-nis, weend-] , noun

post·wean·ing, adjective

pre·wean·ing, adjective

un·weaned, adjective

Can be confused: wean, ween.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source

Link To wean

Example Sentences

The car companies have said that they want to wean buyers from rebates, which add enormously to their marketing costs.

But colleges may find it difficult to wean themselves off coal.

The authors conclude that it is difficult to wean banks from leverage.

EXPAND

The car companies have said that they want to wean buyers from rebates, which add enormously to their marketing costs.

But colleges may find it difficult to wean themselves off coal.

The authors conclude that it is difficult to wean banks from leverage.

African elephants by comparison wean about three and half years in favorable climate conditions.

Several drugs help to wean cocaine addicts from their physical dependency, but the compounds are limited in effectiveness.

Advocates say plug-in hybrids are the best chance to address global warming and wean the nation from oil.

Every so often some administration wonders how to wean itself off.

She attempted to wean herself off both drugs but inexorably lost ground.

And so our own military is working as quickly as possible to wean itself off petroleum through energy efficiency and biofuels.

And yet the transportation industry can't imagine a business model that would attempt to wean people from their beloved cars.

All three have been trying to wean themselves off lending.

We wean all ours onto raw meaty bones and blended veg as soon as they're old enough.

Renewable energy and conservation are the other corenerstones to wean us off hydrocarbon fuels.

The idea is that people will be able to wean themselves from nicotine while continuing to smoke.

And it has tried to wean music fans off free sites by backing fee-paying operations.

None of this helped wean him from the computer, however.

But first of all they must successfully complete an unusual scheme to wean them off drugs.

If only it didn't depend on a bunch of music men who've yet to wean themselves from shiny plastic discs.

Emerging markets that need to wean themselves off cross-border capital will grow more slowly than their potential.

Wean society off the handouts, benefits, and public sector bloat.

Japan's failure to wean itself off exports sooner means that it now faces a more painful adjustment.

While it is too early to know whether the camp can wean youths from.

Here's a look at some islands around the world that are taking steps-some large, some small-to wean themselves off of oil.

Current users have had to get a new number and then publicize it, and spend months trying to wean people off the old number.

Reeve may be able to wean himself permanently from the respirator.

But if the country is to wean itself off food aid, its people must get better at producing things other than food.

Promising technologies to wean the world from fossil fuels, including.

Environmentalists said the mandate doesn't do enough to address global warming and wean us from oil.

The eventual goal is to wean patients off clonazepam, too, he said.

The churches are full of put-upon women who have dragged their men along, hoping to wean them off drink, gambling and other women.

It will take a combination of short and long term solutions to wean us off oil.

He was an early supporter of methadone-maintenance programs to wean drug users from addiction.

At best society should wean itself off this resource and use better energy systems.

The focus of their outrage was methadone, a drug prescribed by doctors around the world to wean addicts from heroin.

Investment bankers used inside information for years and to wean them off the habit will also take years, in my opinion.

The babies of rhesus macaque monkeys cry out to their mothers and tend to cry even more around the time their mothers wean them.

The house believes that subsidies are a good way to wean the world off fossil fuels.

And it would wean homeowners gently off the subsidized financing they have grown accustomed to.

Wean them off the fried stuff with this light version, always a favorite in my.

For today's agriculture to wean itself from fossil fuel and make optimal use of sunlight, crop.

My advice is not to wean because another baby is on the way, so long as the pregnancy is healthy.

Fast trains could help wean the country from cars, he said.

Her activism also started early, when she watched farmers founder as they tried to wean themselves from tobacco.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

wean¹ (wiːn)

—vb
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

[Old English wenian to accustom; related to German gewöhnen to get used to]

'weaning¹

—n

wean² (weɪn, wiːn)

—n
	dialect (Scot), (Northern English) a child; infant

[a contraction of wee ane or perhaps a shortened form of weanling]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

wean

O.E. wenian "to accustom," from P.Gmc. *wanjanan (cf. O.N. venja, Du. wennen, O.H.G. giwennan, Ger. gewöhnen "to accustom"), from *wanaz "accustomed" (related to wont). The sense of weaning a child from the breast in O.E. was generally expressed by gewenian or awenian,

EXPAND

which has a sense of "unaccustom" (cf. Ger. abgewöhnen, entwöhnen "to wean," lit. "to unaccustom"). The prefix subsequently wore off. Figurative extension to any pursuit or habit is from 1526.

COLLAPSE

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

wean (wēn)
v. weaned, wean·ing, weans

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.

Easton

Bible Dictionary

Wean definition

Among the Hebrews children (whom it was customary for the mothers to nurse, Ex. 2:7-9; 1 Sam. 1:23; Cant. 8:1) were not generally weaned till they were three or four years old.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
Cite This Source

Word Dynamo By Dictionary.com

Searching for wean?
How many words do you actually know?

FIND OUT

Related Words

ablactate spean weaner

weaner weanling

Quote Of The Day

"I think it's one of the scars in our culture that we have too high an opinion of ourselves. We align ourselves with the angels instead of the higher primates."

-Angela Carter

Partners:Word Bloglines Citysearch The Daily Beast Ask Answers Ask Kids Life123 Sendori Thesaurus

About Privacy Policy Terms of Use API Careers Advertise with Us Contact Us Help