sucker
UK /ˈsʌk.ə/ · US /ˈsʌk.ɚ/ noun, verb
Forms suckers suckering suckered
- noun A person or animal that sucks, especially a breast or udder; especially a suckling animal, young mammal before it is weaned.
- noun (horticulture) An undesired stem growing out of the roots or lower trunk of a shrub or tree, especially from the rootstock of a grafted plant or tree.
- noun (by extension) A parasite; a sponger.
- noun An organ or body part that does the sucking; especially a round structure on the bodies of some insects, frogs, and octopuses that allows them to stick to surfaces.
- noun A thing that works by sucking something.
- noun The embolus, or bucket, of a pump; also, the valve of a pump basket.
- noun A pipe through which anything is drawn.
- noun A small piece of leather, usually round, having a string attached to the center, which, when saturated with water and pressed upon a stone or other body having a smooth surface, adheres, by reason of the atmospheric pressure, with such force as to enable a considerable weight to be thus lifted by the string; formerly used by children as a plaything.
- verb (horticulture, transitive) To strip the suckers or shoots from; to deprive of suckers. “to sucker maize”
- verb (horticulture, intransitive) To produce suckers; to throw up additional stems or shoots.
- verb (intransitive) To move or attach oneself by means of suckers.
- verb (transitive, informal) To fool someone; to take advantage of someone. “The salesman suckered him into signing an expensive maintenance contract.”
- verb (transitive, informal, usually with into) To lure someone.
- noun (emphatic) Any thing or object. “See if you can get that sucker working again.”
- noun (derogatory) A person.
- noun (US, slang, dated) A native or resident of Illinois.
Synonyms
bloodsucker bludger bummer freeloader free rider gadfly leech mooch moocher parasite scrounge scrounger scunge smell-feast sponge sponger trencher mate soaker suck-pint alco chump fool gull mark patsy fall guy soft touch mug lollipop all-day sucker
Etymology
From Middle English souker, sokere, sukkere, soukere, equivalent to suck (verb) + -er. Compare Saterland Frisian Suuger, West Frisian sûker (“sucker”), Dutch zuiger (“sucker”), German Sauger (“dummy; vacuum”).
Possibly from German Sache (“thing”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun One who, or that which, sucks; esp., one of the organs by which certain animals, as the octopus and remora, adhere to other bodies.
- noun A suckling; a sucking animal. Beau. & Fl.
- verb To strip off the suckers or shoots from; to deprive of suckers; as, to sucker maize.
- verb To form suckers; as, corn suckers abundantly.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “sucker”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details