to give suck
1
9.8
- phrasal verb
- Archaic
:
amamantar
- 19: And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
Examples
-
And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days.
Fiction book (1995) -
Vulgar, ignorant country people: many dirty women with their infants were sitting on the seats, giving suck with their breasts uncovered beneath the lovely female figures of the sculptor.
Fiction book (1994) -
The mother gave suck to her newborn baby to ensure it received the necessary nutrition.
-
In many cultures, it is common for women to give suck to their infants for the first few months of life.
-
She gently cradled the baby in her arms as she gave suck, providing comfort and nourishment.
Synonyms
85
2.5
To feed a baby or young animal with milk from its mother
54
2.3
To feed a baby with your milk
23
2.6
Give a baby milk directly from the mother's breast
19
5.5
To drink milk from a mother's breast or an animal's udder
6
6.2
To produce and give milk to a baby or young animal
1
8.3
To feed another person's baby with her own milk and care for it
Surface Forms
Morphology
give + suck
The verb 'suck' here carries the specific sense 'to give milk by suckling' and 'give' denotes providing or allowing; combined, the meaning 'to breastfeed/nurse' is directly derivable from the parts. The construction is literal and has clear cross‑linguistic parallels (e.g. Spanish 'dar de mamar'), so despite being somewhat formal/archaic in modern English, a B1 learner who knows the constituents should be able to infer the meaning.
Etymology
Give suck comes from a simple image: a mother or female animal gives her breast so the baby sucks milk. So, it means 'to breastfeed' or 'to nurse'.