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Withdraw vs Wean - What's the difference?

withdraw | wean | Related terms |

In transitive terms the difference between withdraw and wean

is that withdraw is to extract (money from an account) while wean is to cause to quit something to which one is addicted or habituated.

In intransitive terms the difference between withdraw and wean

is that withdraw is to be in withdrawal from an addictive drug etc while wean is to cease to depend.

As a noun wean is

a small child.

withdraw

English

Verb

  • To pull (something) back, aside, or away.
  • * Hooker
  • Impossible it is that God should withdraw his presence from anything.
  • To take back (a comment, etc).
  • to withdraw false charges
  • To remove, to stop providing (one's support, etc).
  • To extract (money from an account).
  • To retreat.
  • To be in withdrawal from an addictive drug etc.
  • * 1994 , (Edward St Aubyn), Bad News , Picador 2006, p. 201:
  • Simon had tried to rob a bank while he was withdrawing , but he had been forced to surrender to the police after they had fired several volleys at him.

    wean

    English

    Etymology 1

    (etyl) wenian.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To cease giving milk to an offspring; to accustom and reconcile (a child or young animal) to a want or deprivation of mother's milk; to take from the breast or udder.
  • The cow has weaned her calf.
  • * Bible, Genesis xxi. 8
  • Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned .
  • To cause to quit something to which one is addicted or habituated.
  • He managed to wean himself off heroin.
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • The troubles of age were intended to wean us gradually from our fondness of life.
  • To cease to depend on the mother for nourishment.
  • The kittens are finally weaning .
  • To cease to depend.
  • She is weaning from her addiction to tobacco.

    Etymology 2

    .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (Scotland) A small child.
  • * 2008 , (James Kelman), Kieron Smith, Boy , Penguin 2009, p. 92:
  • Pigs, cows and sheep and wee ducks, that was what he bought and it was just for weans and wee lasses. I said it to my maw.
    Oh it is not weans' it is children. Oh Kieron, it is children and girls, do not say ' weans and lasses.
  • * Elizabeth Browning
  • I, being but a yearling wean .

    Anagrams

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