Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Verb Phrase 84. The verb phrase today is
to wean off or weaned from. So usually you wean somebody off of something or you
wean something from someone. All right. Let's , let's look at the first
meaning here. If you wean a baby off or from a mother's breast, you gradually stop it
from taking its mother's milk and start to eat solid food. Yeah. So this is where
this phrase I think originally came from. So eventually you know, if a mother is
breastfeeding or mother is nursing her baby. You eventually have to wean the
baby off. So the baby stops taking its milk from the mother's breast. Okay, and
number two. To make somebody stop using or doing something that is harmful by
slowly reducing the amount you have. So we kind of use it in the same sense. It
would probably be something that is at least somewhat addictive and it's not
really good for you. You've got to wean yourself off of it.
All right. So let's look at some examples here. That child is three years old. Isn't
it about time she weaned her son off her breast. Yeah. Sometimes you see this. If
you see a mother that let the child's breastfeed for a lot longer than usual.
Maybe some other mothers might say that. Wow, he's getting to be very big. They
should, it's about time they wean him off the breasts. Okay. Well, let's look at
number two. My daughter didn't want to give up her pacifier. You know, the little
nipple but sometimes the babies hold that kind of helps to keep them calm,
especially when they're very young. I had to wean her from it. Yeah. Maybe
eventually, you can let them use that for quite a while, but eventually it doesn't
look good. It may not be good for their teeth to keep going too long with it . All
right. And let's look at number three. I remember there was a scene from an old
HBO series in which one character who was a married man said that he had to
wean himself off of going to prostitutes. Yeah.
I always remember this. I think the name of the show actually was the married man and I
think he was actually going for massages, but it was one of those massage places
where they did some special service for you and he felt very guilty about it. He
wanted to do it because he knew technically that really is cheating on
his wife, but he didn't want to stop. So that's what he said he was going to do.
He said he was going to wean himself from it. Of course. He should have never done it
at all. It's a terrible thing, but I always remember that line from that show.
This is one way that we was also used. Anyway, I hope you got it. I hope it's
clear thank you for your time. Bye-bye.