What does wean mean from Romeo and Juliet?

Answer 1

Nurse: And she was wean'd,--I never shall forget it,--

Of all the days of the year, upon that day:

For I had then laid wormwood to my dug,

Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall;

My lord and you were then at Mantua:--

Nay, I do bear a brain:--but, as I said,

When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple

Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool,

To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug!

wormwood is a plant with an extremely bitter taste.

Answer 2

"To wean" means to start feeding a child or young animal food other than breast milk. With cattle and horses, the calves and foals are taken from their mothers so they can no longer suck at their teats and are given fodder to eat like adult animals. With people, the children are given mushy baby food to eat and are not allowed access to the breast. Human babies are weaned normally before they get teeth.

In Juliet's case, the Nurse was a wet-nurse, which means that Juliet fed at the Nurse's breast, not at her own mother's. (The Nurse was lactating because she had recently given birth to her daughter Susan, who has since died.) The Nurse says that she weaned Juliet by applying bitter-tasting wormwood to her nipple (her "dug" she calls it) so baby Juliet would refuse the breast.