vbl. sb. [-ING1.] The action of the vb. WEAN; an instance of this.
1382. Wyclif, Gen. xxi. 8. Abraham made a greet feest in the day of the wanyng of hym.
c. 1460. Oseney Reg., 91. Mylke of þere kyne fro þe tyme of þe wenyng of þe calues.
1610. Fletcher, Faithf. Sheph., I. Whose Lambs are ever last And dye before their waining.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 295. This from his Weaning, let him [the horse] well be taught.
1784. Cowper, Tiroc., 557. This second weaning, needless as it is, How does it lac’rate both your heart and his!
1848. Dickens, Dombey, viii. A waiter’s wife,… from within a day or two of Paul’s sharp weaning, had been engaged as his nurse.
1895. G. Meredith, Amazing Marriage, xxix. The time for the weaning of the babe approached.
b. Comb. as weaning-feast, -time; with sense ‘in process of weaning,’ as weaning calf, child, colt, lamb; weaning-brash (see quot.).
1844. Dunglison, Med. Lex. (ed. 4), Brash, *Weaning,… A severe form of diarrhœa, which supervenes at times on weaning.
1598. in Lancs. & Chesh. Wills (Chetham Soc., 1897), III. 8. To the children of John Holcrofte my best *weaning calf.
1778. Reading Merc. & Oxf. Gaz., 30 Nov. A weaning Bull Call.
1844. Marryat, Settlers in Canada, xxviii. He also took six weaning calves to bring up.
1820. Clare, Rural Life (ed. 3), 110. Like *weaning child that’s lost its rattle.
1913. E. Nesbit, in New Witness, 23 Jan., 369. The limbs of our weaning children You crushed in your mills of power.
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., § 135. If there be moche grasse … than put in calues newly wained … and also *waynynge coltes.
1896. Jessopp & James, Life St. William of Norwich, p. lxv. The miracle which happened on his *weaning-feast.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Past., VII. 21. To house, and feed by hand my *weaning Lambs.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., III. 139 b. The Lambes … must be well cherished in their *weaning time with good pasture.
