Other forms: suckling, suckled, suckles
To suckle is to feed a young one at the breast. Suckle the lamb, a suckling pig, suckled for months.
It works both ways: the mother suckles the young and the young suckles at her, which is unusual in English. A suckling pig is one still feeding. Note that the word was probably made backwards from suckling, and that the -le ending here marks repeated action, as in nibble.
1verbsuckleTo feed a young one at the breast.
“The ewe lay down in the straw to suckle her two newborn lambs.”
suckle is a feeding.
Middle English sukelen is probably a back-formation from suckling, from suck plus -le. The -le marks repeated action.
Middle English
sukelen
English, today
suckle
From Middle English sukelen; probably a back-formation of Middle English sukeling (“a suckling; infant”), formally equivalent to suck + le. See suckling.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA