suckle
/ˈsʌk.əl/
suckle noun: a teat.
Noun
suckle (plural suckles)
- A 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
- 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)
- To give suck to; to nurse at the breast, udder, or dugs.
- […] 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]... - 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
- […] the breasts of Hecuba
- To 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
- To 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
- 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
suckle meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
suckle in Hindi
- to suckle
- चूसना cūsnā
suckle in Tamil
- தாய்பாலூட்டல், பாலூட்டல், முலைப் பாலூட்டல், பாலூட்டவிடுதல்
suckle in Urdu
- دودھ پلانا
suckle in Bengali
- স্তন্যপান করানো, করা
More languagesFewer languages
- suckle in Telugu
- కుడుపు kuḍupu
- suckle in Malayalam
- മുലയൂട്ടുക, മുലകൊടുക്കുക, മുലപ്പാൽകൊടുത്തു വളർത്തുക, മുലകൊടുത്തു വളർത്തുക
- suckle in Kannada
- ಮೊಲೆಗೂಡು, ಮೊಲೆಯೂಡು, ಮೊಲೆಕೊಡು, ಮೊಲೆಯೂಡಿಸು
- suckle in Sanskrit
- धयति dháyati
- suckle in Arabic
- رَضَّعَ raḍḍaʕa, رَضِعَ raḍiʕa
- suckle in Indonesian
- menyusui, menyusu
- suckle in Vietnamese
- mút, bú
Examples of suckle in a sentence
- Positioned thus, Lehua suckled her newborn son.
- The mother digs a nursery burrow and deposits the puggle, returning every 5 days to suckle it until it is weaned at 7 months.
- Sometimes, a willing female partner will permit her partner to suckle at her breast while pouring milk onto her breast to simulate lactation.
Forms of suckle
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | suckles |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | suckles |
| present participle | suckling |
| past participle | suckled |
| past | suckled |
Origin of suckle
From Middle English sukelen; probably a back-formation of Middle English sukeling (“a suckling; infant”), formally equivalent to suck + -le (frequentative suffix). See suckling.
Words formed from suckle
Words that rhyme with suckle
Questions about suckle
- What does suckle mean?
- Suckle means a teat.
- What is suckle in Hindi?
- Suckle in Hindi is चूसना (cūsnā). See Suckle meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is suckle?
- Suckle can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce suckle?
- Suckle is pronounced /ˈsʌk.əl/.
- What is the plural of suckle?
- The plural of suckle is suckles.
Words near suckle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: suckle (page history and authors); चूसना (Hindi) (page history and authors); suckle (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); suckle (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); suckle (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); కుడుపు (Telugu) (page history and authors); suckle (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); suckle (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); धयति (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-suckle.wav.
Cite this entry: “suckle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/suckle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.