▪ I. suckling, n.1
(ˈsʌklɪŋ)
Forms: 5 suklinge, sukkelyng, 5–6 sokelyng(e, 6 suc(k)lynge, -elynge, 7 sucklin, 6– suckling.
[f. suck v. + -ling1. Cf. MDu. sôgeling (Du. zuigeling, WFlem. zoogeling), MHG. sôgelinc, sûgelinc (G. säugling).]
1. a. An infant that is at the breast or is unweaned.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 463/1 Sokelynge, or he þat sokythe, sububer. 1535 Coverdale Ps. viii. 2 Out of the mouth of the very babes & sucklinges thou hast ordened prayse. 1578 Banister Hist. Man i. 8 The place, that in infantes, and late borne sucklynges, is so soft, and tender. 1601 Dent Pathw. Heaven 389 A louing mother, though her yoong suckling crie all night,..when she ariseth, she loueth it neuerthelesse. 1845 Wordsw. ‘Young England’ 14 Let Babes and Sucklings be thy oracles. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 129 In this country at any rate, rickets is practically unknown amongst sucklings. |
b. A young animal that is suckled; esp. a sucking calf; cf. suckler 1.
| 1530 Palsgr. 272/1 Sokelyng a yong calfe. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. 43 b, Here next to my house, are my Sucklings, that are brought to their dammes to sucke thrise a day. 1655 Moufet & Bennet Health's Improv. (1746) 136 Calves are either Sucklings or Wainlings. 1693 Congreve in Dryden's Juvenal xi. (1697) 285 The tend'rest Kid And Fattest of my Flock, a Suckling yet. 1731 Arbuthnot Aliments iv. (1735) 92 When an Animal that gives Suck turns feverish,..the Milk turns..to Yellow; to which the Suckling has an Aversion. 1821 Byron Cain ii. ii, I lately saw A lamb stung by a reptile: the poor suckling Lay foaming on the earth. 1822–7 Good Study Med. (1829) II. 590 Half the dogs pupped there are supposed to die of it while sucklings. |
c. fig.
| 1806 H. K. White Let. to R. W. A. 18 Aug., This island, and its little suckling the Isle of Wight. |
2. = sucker n. 4. dial. Cf. suckler 5.
| 1798 Trans. Soc. Arts XVI. 345 The sucklings of my old trees transplanted. |
▪ II. suckling, n.2
(ˈsʌklɪŋ)
Also 5 suklynge, 5–6 sokelyng(e.
[app. f. suckle n.1]
1. Clover. (Also lamb-sucklings.) dial. † Also glossing L. locusta. = honeysuckle 1, 1 b; suckle n. 1 a.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 463/1 Sokelynge, herbe (or suklynge), locusta. c 1450 Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.) 270 As we with swete bredys have it [sc. the passover lamb] ete And also with the byttyr Sokelyng. [Cf. Exodus xii. 8.] 1530 Palsgr. 272/1 Sokelyng an herbe. a 1682 Sir T. Browne Extr. Common-Pl. Bks. Wks. 1835 IV. 379 The flowers of sorrel are reddish,..of sweet trefoil or suckling three-leaved grass, red or white. 1765 Museum Rust. IV. 123 The white or Dutch clover... Probably from the apparent advantage which sheep receive from this admirable grass, is it called lamb's sucklings. 1798 Hull Advertiser 24 Mar. 2/1 Clover seed, trefoil, sainfoin, red suckling. 1895 Gloss E. Anglia, Suckling..(2) The common purple clover. In Suffolk, however, the red clover is never called suckling, but that term is generally used for the white or Dutch clover. 1898 Rider Haggard Farmer's Year (1899) 61 The suckling is already thick in the grass, making patches of green carpeting. |
2. = honeysuckle 2 (Lonicera Perichymenum). Obs. exc. dial.
| 1653 Lawes Ayres & Dial. ii. 16 The wanton Suckling and the Vine. 1664 in Verney Mem. (1907) II. 208 To smell the sucklins and the stocks and to see the new trees grow. 1678 R. Ferrier Jrnl. in Camden Misc. (1895) IX. 32 Fine walks covered overhead with roses and sucklings. 1823 E. Moor Suffolk Words 408 Sucklin,..the honey-suckle. |
▪ III. suckling, vbl. n.
(ˈsʌklɪŋ)
[f. suckle v. + -ing1.]
1. a. The feeding of infants at the breast. b. The rearing of young calves, etc. in suckling-houses.
| 1799 Syn. Husb. in R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. (1805) II. 978 In suckling..the charges are much heavier than when the milk is sold out of the pail. 1842 Prichard Nat. Hist. Man 64 The processes connected with reproduction and suckling. 1892 J. Carmichael Dis. Childr. 288 Irregular Suckling is a fruitful cause of illness in the infant. |
c. transf. (see quot.).
| 1855 Delamer Kitch. Gard. (1861) 153 The Lancashire exhibitors..leave but very few [gooseberries] on each bush, and increase the size of those..by a process called ‘suckling’, i.e., placing a pan of water under each berry, that it may swell from the vapour given out. |
2. attrib., as suckling time; suckling assistant, a device for relieving nursing mothers when suffering from sore nipples; † suckling box, ? a feeding-bottle of wood; suckling-house, a house or hut in which young calves or lambs are brought up; † suckling meats, food suitable for infants.
| 1803 Med. Jrnl. X. 353 Relfe's *suckling assistant. |
| 1679 C. Nesse Antichrist 97 Milk in a warm breast is more effectual nourishment, than milk in a cold *suckling box. |
| 1778 W. H. Marshall Minutes Agric. 29 Oct. 1775 The Suckler..drove one of the cows out of the *suckling-house into the yard. |
| c 1610 Women Saints 111 Then had she nyne poore infants..whome she fedd on her knees, with tender and *suckling meates agreeable for their infancie. |
| 1818 Keats Endym. iii. 456 She took me like a child of *suckling time, And cradled me in roses. |
▪ IV. suckling, ppl. a.
(ˈsʌklɪŋ)
[f. suckle v. + -ing2.]
1. a. Giving suck. b. Rearing young calves, etc. in suckling-houses.
| 1799 Underwood Dis. Childhood (ed. 4) I. 293 Infants at the breast necessarily lying so much on the arm of the suckling mother. c 1800 Abdy in A. Young Agric. Essex (1813) II. 278 In the dairy farms the calves are generally sold at a week old, to the suckling farmer. 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 979 The calf-suckling farmer. |
2. = sucking ppl. a. 1, 2.
In earlier quots. possibly attrib. use of suckling n.1
| 1688 Lond. Gaz. No. 2357/4 Lost..a black and white suckling Spaniel Bitch. 1732 Arbuthnot Rules of Diet in Aliments etc. 404 Most of the Diseases of suckling Infants proceed from Milk growing sour and curdling in the Stomach. 1819 Scott Ivanhoe xxxii, Though thou art not so tender as a suckling pig. 1835 Wordsw. Sonn. ‘While poring Antiquarians’, The Wolf, whose suckling Twins [etc.]. 1896 Allbutt's Syst. Med. I. 163 Milk, the natural food of the suckling animal. |
b. transf. and fig.
| 1866 Swinburne Laus Veneris lxxix, O breast whereat some suckling sorrow clings. 1882 Coues Biogen (1884) 43 Some German metaphysicians and their suckling converts. |