[f. SUCKLE v. + -ING1.]
1. a. The feeding of infants at the breast. b. The rearing of young calves, etc., in suckling-houses.
1799. Syn. Husb., in R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric. (1805), II. 978. In suckling … the charges are much heavier than when the milk is sold out of the pail.
1842. Prichard, Nat. Hist. Man, 64. The processes connected with reproduction and suckling.
1892. J. Carmichael, Dis. Childr., 288. Irregular Suckling is a fruitful cause of illness in the infant.
c. transf. (see quot.)
1855. Delamer, Kitch. Gard. (1861), 153. The Lancashire exhibitors … leave but very few [gooseberries] on each bush, and increase the size of those … by a process called ‘suckling,’ i. e., placing a pan of water under each berry, that it may swell from the vapour given out.
2. attrib., as suckling time; suckling assistant, a device for relieving nursing mothers when suffering from sore nipples; † suckling box, ? a feeding-bottle of wood; suckling-house, a house or hut in which young calves or lambs are brought up; † suckling meats, food suitable for infants.
1803. Med. Jrnl., X. 353. Relfe’s *suckling assistant.
1679. C. Nesse, Antichrist, 97. Milk in a warm breast is more effectual nourishment, than milk in a cold *suckling box.
1778. [W. Marshall], Minutes Agric., 29 Oct. 1775. The Suckler … drove one of the cows out of the *suckling-house into the yard.
c. 1610. Women Saints, 111. Then had she nyne poore infants … whome she fedd on her knees, with tender and *suckling meates agreeable for their infancie.
1818. Keats, Endym., III. 456. She took me like a child of *suckling time, And cradled me in roses.
