Also 5 sukle, 6 soc(k)le. [Of obscure formation.
Usually taken to be f. SUCK v. + -LE, but the ordinary frequentative meaning of this suffix is not appropriate. Possibly a back-formation from SUCKLING sb., first recorded c. 1440.]
1. trans. To give suck to; to nurse (a child) at the breast.
1408. Wyclif’s Bible, Job iii. 12 (MS. Fairf. 2). Whi was j suklid wiþ tetis?
1604. Shaks., Oth., II. i. 161. Iago. She was a wight…. Des. To do what? Iago. To suckle Fooles, and chronicle small Beere. Ibid. (1607), Cor., I. iii. 44. The brests of Hecuba When she did suckle Hector, look’d not louelier Then Hectors forhead.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Past., III. 41. My Brinded Heifer … Two Thriving Calves she suckles twice a-day.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Satire Quack, Wks. 1730, I. 63. Some she-bear … Suckled thee young.
1789. Buchan, Dom. Med. (1790), 233. If she continue to suckle the child, it is at the peril of her own life.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xxvi. The misery of the mother’s condition rendered her little able to suckle the infant.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 470. A calf is suckled for 10 weeks.
1879. Dixon, Windsor, I. iv. 35. An English prince,… suckled by an English nurse.
absol. 1839–47. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., III. 361/2. The specific gravity of the milk appears to increase as the woman continues suckling.
b. fig. To nourish with, bring up on.
1654. Jer. Taylor, Real Pres., A 3. It began in the ninth age, and in the tenth was suckled with little arguments and imperfect pleadings.
1721. Bradley, Philos. Acc. Wks. Nat., 35. The Roots … are till that time in a manner suckled by the Mother Plant.
1732. Pope, Ess. Man, I. 134. For me kind Nature … Suckles each herb, and spreads out ev’ry flow’r.
1781. Cowper, Expost., 364. Though suckled at fair freedom’s breast.
1807. Wordsw., ‘The world is too much with us,’ 10. A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn.
1883. G. Moore, Mod. Lover, xvii. The great artist … is born in the barren womb of failure and suckled on the tears of impotence.
2. To cause to take milk from the breast or udder; to put to suck. Also with up. Now rare.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 38. Put the lambe to her, and socle it.
1566. Painter, Pal. Pleas., I. 78. If kiddes be sockled vp wyth ewes milke.
1778. [W. Marshall], Minutes Agric., 28 Feb. an. 1776. Suckling calves after they are ten weeks old, is bad management.
a. 1796. Vancouver, in A. Young, Agric. Essex (1813), II. 284. A third [purpose] may be added, that of suckling, or feeding calves for the London market.
1834. L. Ritchie, Wand. Seine, 131. [The Jews] were forbidden to suckle their children by means of Christian nurses.
3. intr. To suck at the breast. rare.
1688, etc. [? implied in SUCKLING ppl. a. 2.]
1823. Mme. P. Panam, Mem. Yng. Gr. Lady, 102. The child who was suckling at my bosom.
