Word: sucker Part of Speech: noun 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”). Pronunciation: /ˈsʌk.ə/, /ˈsʌk.ɚ/ 1. A person or animal that sucks, especially a breast or udder; especially a suckling animal, young mammal before it is weaned. Example: Sir Gregory. I promise you, not a house-rabbit, sir. Sir Perfidious. No sucker on ’em all. 2. 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. 3. A parasite; a sponger. Labels: broadly Example: They who constantly converse with men far above their estates shall reap shame and loss thereby; if thou payest nothing, they will count thee a sucker, no branch. Example: Of the scaly tribe, I may mention those suckers belonging to the body loaferish, that never rise to the surface of respectability, but are always groveling in the mud of corruption, whose sole study appears to be to see how much they can get without the least physical exertion; and who would rather ride to hell in a hand-cart than walk to heaven supported by the staff of industry. 4. 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. 5. A thing that works by sucking something. 6. The embolus, or bucket, of a pump; also, the valve of a pump basket. Example: The last Mr. Hobbs’s principal explanations, is of the experiment wherein above 100 pound weight, being hung at the depress’d sucker, the sucker was, notwithstanding, impell’d up again, by the air, to the top of the cylinder. 7. A pipe through which anything is drawn. 8. 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. 9. A suction cup. Labels: UK, colloquial 10. An animal such as the octopus and remora, which adhere to other bodies with such organs. 11. Any fish in the family Catostomidae of North America and eastern Asia, which have mouths modified into downward-pointing, suckerlike structures for feeding in bottom sediments. 12. A lollipop; a piece of candy which is sucked. Labels: US, informal 13. A hard drinker. Labels: archaic, slang 14. An inhabitant of Illinois. Labels: US, obsolete Example: There is a swarm of 'suckers,' 'hoosiers,' 'buckeyes,' 'corn-crackers,' and 'wolverines,' eternally on the qui vive, in those parts—a migratory race of bipeds—who float about from spot to spot, 'squatting,' for the nonce, wherever their fancy or interest may incline them; and a rougher set of men will rarely be met with, saving the genuine 'voyageurs,' or 'trappers'—so notorious for their hardihood. Example: A band of music was sent thirty miles to wake up the sleepy suckers, and draw them, by the magic of their music, to the Douglas gathering at Quincy, Illinois. 15. A migrant lead miner working in the Driftless Area of northwest Illinois, southwest Wisconsin, and northeast Iowa, working in summer and leaving for winter, so named because of the similarity to the migratory patterns of the North American Catostomidae. Labels: US, obsolete 16. A person who is easily deceived, tricked or persuaded to do something; a naive or gullible person. Labels: US, slang Example: One poor sucker had actually given her his life’s savings. Example: This ſucker thinks nane wiſe. / But him that can to immenſe riches riſe: 17. A person irresistibly attracted by something specified. Labels: informal Example: I'm a sucker for ghost stories. Example: He must be a sucker for punishment to try to climb that mountain barefoot. 18. The penis. Labels: British, obsolete, slang, vulgar Example: Thus to and again to our paſtime we went, / And my Cards I play'd fairly to Jenny's content; / I work'd at her Pump till my Sucker grew dry, / Then I left pumping, a good Reaſon why.