[ad. L. ablactātiōnem, n. of action f. ablactāre; see ABLACTATE.]
1. The weaning of a child, or the young of quadrupeds, from the mother.
1656. Blount, Glossog., Ablactation, a weaning, as children from the Mother’s Teat.
1666. J. Smith, Solomon’s Portr. Old Age (1752), 74. The time of ablactation of the child is indicated by the beginning of the use of the teeth.
1841. Cockburn, Jeffrey, II. Let. 157. The consequences of too sudden and peremptory an ablactation.
1863. Burton, Abeokuta, I. 45. In Northern Europe ablactation begins when the milk teeth appear.
2. Hort. The process of grafting (trees), also called inarching.
1676. J. Rea, Flora, 195. Called grafting by Approach, by some Ablactation.
1681. Worlidge, Syst. Agric., 321. Ablactation is one of the ways of Grafting; that is, weaning the Cion by degrees from its mother.
1763. Miller, Gard. Dict. Abridged, s.v. Grafting, Grafting by approach or ablactation … is to be performed in the month of April.
1802. W. Forsyth, Fruit Trees, xxii. 311 (1824). Grafting by approach, or ablactation when the stock … and the tree from which you take your graft, stand so near together that they may be joined.
