sucker
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: agriculture
biology
business
horticulture
ichthyology
lifestyle
natural-sciences
zoology
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”).
Base: suck
Affixes: -er
Inflected forms:
form: suckers
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: suckers
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: suckering
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: suckered
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: suckered
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A person or animal that sucks, especially a breast or udder; especially a suckling animal, young mammal before it is weaned.
pos: noun
examples: Sir Gregory. I promise you, not a house-rabbit, sir. Sir Perfidious. No sucker on ’em all.
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
gloss: A parasite; a sponger.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
examples: 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.
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.
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
gloss: A thing that works by sucking something.
pos: noun
gloss: The embolus, or bucket, of a pump; also, the valve of a pump basket.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
gloss: A pipe through which anything is drawn.
pos: noun
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
gloss: A suction cup.
pos: noun
tags: UK
colloquial
gloss: An animal such as the octopus and remora, which adhere to other bodies with such organs.
pos: noun
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
gloss: A lollipop; a piece of candy which is sucked.
pos: noun
tags: US
informal
gloss: A hard drinker.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
slang
gloss: An inhabitant of Illinois.
pos: noun
tags: US
obsolete
examples: 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.
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.
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
tags: US
obsolete
gloss: A person who is easily deceived, tricked or persuaded to do something; a naive or gullible person.
pos: noun
tags: US
slang
examples: One poor sucker had actually given her his life’s savings.
This ſucker thinks nane wiſe. / But him that can to immenſe riches riſe:
They had sorcerized me, and I were a done-over sucker; so I jist gin up. No sooner had we ’rove at the boat, instead o’ feastin’ me on gully-whompin oysters, they nabbed me quick as a snappin’ turtle
“George, them fellows took me for a sucker. Do I look like a sucker?” ¶ “No, Bill; you look like a nice, smart counter-hopper,” I replied.
Then he burst into a stream of horrible profanity. "What's the game?" he cried, glaring round him. "Do you think I am easy and that you can play me for a sucker? Is it a frame-up, or what?
“After twenty years you’re still a sucker for her lies? […]”
The rates here were unbelievable - $30 a day each. As you walk through the front door, they stamp "sucker" on your forehead.
gloss: A person irresistibly attracted by something specified.
pos: noun
tags: informal
examples: I'm a sucker for ghost stories.
He must be a sucker for punishment to try to climb that mountain barefoot.
So don't be alarmed if he takes you by the arm / I won't let him win, but I'm a sucker for his charm / Trouble is a friend, yeah, trouble is a friend of mine, oh oh!
2015, Clutch, Sucker for the Witch
Oh, I begged and I pleaded like a fiend for a fix / I must unburden my guilty conscience / I admit it, I'm a sucker for the witch
gloss: The penis.
pos: noun
tags: British
obsolete
slang
vulgar
examples: 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.
gloss: To strip the suckers or shoots from; to deprive of suckers.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: to sucker maize
It is as important to sucker tobacco carefully and as often as the situation demands it as it is to search for and remove the green-horn worm.
gloss: To produce suckers; to throw up additional stems or shoots.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: I have let my vines sucker more than I ought this year, perhaps, but I want to start them out in better shape by encouraging a large growth of wood.
We prefer to plant in rows instead of hills because the plants sucker so badly here, and because, with our scanty rainfall, it is better to have the plants isolated than bunched.
gloss: To move or attach oneself by means of suckers.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: I am now the octopus, mucus, held together by soft moist membrane, suckering everywhere.
He paused at the octopus tank. Clyde, our resident giant Pacific octopus, was suckering his way across the front panel.
I hold the octopus around the middle, suckering and so heavy, trying to crawl down my belly and legs to get away. I run to shore, trying to keep the tentacles off me, but it's too big and strong.
gloss: To fool someone; to take advantage of someone.
pos: verb
tags: informal
transitive
examples: The salesman suckered him into signing an expensive maintenance contract.
I asked him to tell me specifically just what his gripe might be, but he told me never mind what the details are; that he had put his faith in you on my recommendation but that you had suckered him and he refused to tell me anything about how you suckered him.
gloss: To lure someone.
pos: verb
tags: informal
transitive
usually
examples: As the escort carriers chug away south, their single 5-inch rear guns are now cleared to open fire as the range closes. Disappointed gunners on other weapons are informed, "Just wait a little longer, boys; we're suckering them into 40-mm range."
Derived words: all-day sucker
ass sucker
a sucker is born every minute
ballsucker
bloodsucker
blood-sucker
bogsucker
bottle-sucker
bum-sucker
bumsucker
carpsucker
choadsucker
chubsucker
clitsucker
clocksucker
cocksucker
cock-sucker
cock sucker
cogsucker
cow sucker
cuntsucker
cybersucker
desucker
dicksucker
goatsucker
gully sucker
hogsucker
honeysucker
kikesucker
Klamath smallscale sucker
Lost River sucker
lumpsucker
mudsucker
nutsucker
pseudosucker
quarter-sucker
rocksucker
sandsucker
sapsucker
scumsucker
selfsucker
self-sucker
sharksucker
shortnose sucker
solder sucker
Suckerberg
sucker bet
suckerfish
sucker for punishment
suckerhood
suckerish
suckerless
suckerlet
suckerlike
suckermouth
sucker punch
sucker-punch
sucker tracks
sucker trap
Suckerville
suckery
swordfish sucker
there's a sucker born every minute
thumbsucker
titsucker
Uncle Sucker
whalesucker
wheelsucker
windsucker
wind-sucker
Zuni bluehead sucker
Translations: