weaning
part of speech
noun (weaning, uncountable); verb, -ing form of wean (wean, weans, weaned, weaning)
meaning for a pupil
1) Slowly getting a baby or a young animal used to eating food instead of drinking only its mother's milk (or formula). tree →
2) Slowly helping someone to give up something they depend on or are used to: "weaning him off sweets". tree →
3) (Scotland, noun "wean") A child; this is a different, Scots word. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science lessons on life cycles and mammals, weaning is the stage when young animals stop feeding on milk. Parents talk about weaning a baby onto mashed food around six months. In everyday life, "weaning off" means cutting down slowly, such as weaning off screens. Phrases: "wean off", "wean onto", "be weaned from".
examples
- The piglets are weaning now and eating from the trough. tree →
- Weaning a baby starts with soft, mashed food. tree →
- My baby sister was weaned onto mashed banana. tree →
- Puppies finish weaning at about eight weeks old. tree →
- Dad is weaning himself off sugar in his tea. tree →
- Mum is weaning us off screens before bedtime. tree →
note
"Wean" is a regular verb (weaned, weaning). Weaning is slow and step by step, not sudden. In Scotland, "wean" (sounds like "wayn") also means a small child: "Get the weans to bed."
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «weaning» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.