Also 5 suklynge, 5–6 sokelyng(e. [app. f. SUCKLE sb.1]
1. Clover. (Also lamb-sucklings). dial. † Also glossing L. locusta. = HONEYSUCKLE 1, 1 b; SUCKLE sb. 1 a.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 463/1. Sokelynge, herbe (or suklynge), locusta.
c. 1450. Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.), 270. As we with swete bredys have it [sc. the passover lamb] ete And also with the byttyr Sokelyng. [Cf. Exodus xii. 8.]
1530. Palsgr., 272/1. Sokelyng an herbe.
a. 1682. Sir T. Browne, Extr. Common-Pl. Bks., Wks. 1835, IV. 379. The flowers of sorrel are reddish,… of sweet trefoil or suckling three-leaved grass, red or white.
1765. Museum Rust., IV. 123. The white or Dutch clover…. Probably from the apparent advantage which sheep receive from this admirable grass, is it called lamb’s sucklings.
1798. Hull Advertiser, 24 March, 2/1. Clover seed, trefoil, sainfoin, red suckling.
1895. Gloss. E. Anglia, Suckling … (2) The common purple clover. In Suffolk, however, the red clover is never called suckling, but that term is generally used for the white or Dutch Clover.
1898. Rider Haggard, Farmer’s Year (1899), 61–2. The suckling is already thick in the grass, making patches of green carpeting.
2. = HONEYSUCKLE 2 (Lonicera Perichymenum). Obs. exc. dial.
1653. Lawes, Ayres & Dial., II. 16. The wanton Suckling and the Vine.
1664. in Verney Mem. (1907), II. 208. To smell the sucklins and the stocks and to see the new trees grow.
1678. R. Ferrier, Jrnl., in Camden Misc. (1895), IX. 32. Fine walks covered overhead with roses and sucklings.
1823. E. Moor, Suffolk Words, 403. Sucklin,… the honey-suckle.
