suckle

plural suckles

1. obsoleteA teat.

   […] 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 […]

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

2. An act of suckling

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

present singular third person suckles · participle present suckling · participle past suckled · past suckled

1. transitiveTo give suck to; to nurse at the breast, udder, or dugs.

   A relief of a goat suckling her young.

   1907, Ronald M. Burrows, The Discoveries In Crete, page 21

   2 more examples

   […] 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.

   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, [Act I, scene iii]

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

   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, page 35

2. intransitiveTo nurse; to suck milk from a nursing mother.

   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.

   1931, Pearl S. Buck, chapter 4, in The Good Earth, New York: Modern Library, published 1944, page 35

3. transitiveTo nurse from (a breast, nursing mother, etc.).

   Buz attempted to suckle his left nipple.

   1982, Bernard Malamud, God’s Grace, New York: Avon, published 1983, page 60

   1 more example

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

   1997, Ridley Pearson, Beyond Recognition, New York: Hyperion, page 129