Relinquished (verb) – to withdraw or retreat from : leave behind

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/relinquished

From “The Shawl” By Cynthia Ozick

I came across this word while reading “The Shawl” By Cynthia Ozick. It appears around the beginnning of the reading, as the author talks about how the girl, Magda is interacting with Rosa. It caught my interest because it’s a word that i’ve heard before but isn’t used quite often. So i’m curious as to how it ties in with the sentence and the author’s overall point.

“Without complaining, Magda relinquished Rosa’s teats, first the left, then the right; both were cracked, not a sniff of milk” (Ozick).

After reading the definition of the word I better understand the context of how the author was using it in that part of the text. As seen in the quote, the author is discribing how Magda relinquished Rosa’s teats.