oral gratification

oral gratification (countable and uncountable, plural oral gratifications)

1. (psychology) In Freudian psychology, the satisfaction felt in infancy when the need for food, especially from the mother's breast, is fulfilled, and which in later life can be associated with such dysfunctional behaviors as excessive eating, drinking, or smoking.
   • 1958, E. I. Falstein and H. A. Sutton, "Childhood Schizophrenia," The American Journal of Nursing, vol. 58, no. 5, p. 669:

     Oral gratification was offered almost continuously—between-meal nourishment, before-bed treats, chewing gum and toys which could be sucked and chewed.

   • 1980, Waud Kracke, "The Complementarity of Social and Psychological Regularities: Leadership as a Mediating Phenomenon," Ethos, vol. 8, no. 4, p. 281:

     These experiences left him with a rather unsteady control over his angry impulses, particularly when denied oral gratification such as a drink of liquor.

   • 2003 Nov. 22, Richard Corliss, "That Old Feeling: The Great American Smoke," Time (retrieved 30 March 2014):

     Smoking is, at heart, oral gratification. There is, shall we say, a certain sexual implication in putting our lips around a long, thin object, ingesting its essence into the mouth, perhaps swallowing it, then expelling it.