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suck·le (sŭkəl)
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v. suck·led, suck·ling, suck·les
v.tr.
1.
a. To cause or allow to take milk at the breast or teat; nurse: a mare suckling her foal.
b. To take milk from (the mother, a breast, or a teat): a baby suckling its mother's breast.
2. To take in as sustenance; have as nourishment: suckled courage from her strong mother.
3. To nourish as if with the milk of the breast; nurture: suckled on video games and comic books.
v.intr.
To suck at the breast or teat.
[Middle English suclen, perhaps from suklinge, suckling; see SUCKLING.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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