teat
noun/tiːt/
Etymology From Middle English tete, from Old French tete (“teat”) (compare French tette), from Frankish *tittā, *tittō, from Proto-Germanic *tittaz (“teat; nipple; breast”), ultimately of expressive origin. Compare Old High German zizza ("teat"; modern German Zitze), whence also Italian zizza (“teat”). It heavily displaced Old English titt, a cognate of the same origin, which survives as tit, but in more vulgar use. Compare Dutch tiet and German Zitze (“teat”).
1
Anatomy, Medicine, Sciences The projection of a mammary gland from which, on female therian mammals, milk is secreted.
- Milk formed their chief diet, and this they were supposed to imbibe from the witch herself, from a third "teat" which had been made beneath the arm by a nip from the Devil's pincers.1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 107:
2
Something resembling a teat, such as a small protuberance or nozzle.
3
An artificial nipple used for bottle-feeding infants.
- Derived terms
- cold as a witch's teat, glass teat, hind teat, mare's teat, mare's teat grape, teated, teatless, teatlike, witch's teat
- Related terms
- breast, mammary gland, tit, udder