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Sucker

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sucker¹

  • /ˈsʌk.ə/ UK
  • /ˈsʌk.ɚ/ US

Sounds like succor · Rhymes with -ʌkə(ɹ)

Where it comes from

Etymology tree

Proto-Germanic *sūkaną

Proto-West Germanic *sūkan

Old English sūcan

Middle English souken

Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.

Proto-Italic *-āzios

Latin -āriusnom.

Latin -āriusbor.

Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz

Proto-West Germanic *-ārī

Old English -ere

Middle English -ere

Middle English souker

English sucker

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”).

noun suckers

  1. A person or animal that sucks, especially a breast or udder; especially a suckling animal, young mammal before it is weaned. 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. broadly A parasite; a sponger. 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.
  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. 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. UK, colloquial A suction cup.
  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. US, informal A lollipop; a piece of candy which is sucked.
  13. archaic, slang A hard drinker.
  14. US, obsolete An inhabitant of Illinois. 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 wi
  15. US, obsolete 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.
  16. US, slang A person who is easily deceived, tricked or persuaded to do something; a naive or gullible person. One poor sucker had actually given her his life’s savings.
  17. informal A person irresistibly attracted by something specified. I'm a sucker for ghost stories.
  18. British, obsolete, slang, vulgar The penis. 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.

verb suckers · suckering · suckered

  1. transitive To strip the suckers or shoots from; to deprive of suckers. to sucker maize
  2. intransitive To produce suckers; to throw up additional stems or shoots. 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.
  3. intransitive To move or attach oneself by means of suckers. I am now the octopus, mucus, held together by soft moist membrane, suckering everywhere.
  4. informal, transitive To fool someone; to take advantage of someone. The salesman suckered him into signing an expensive maintenance contract.
  5. informal, transitive, usually To lure someone. 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."

sucker²

  • /ˈsʌk.ə/ UK
  • /ˈsʌk.ɚ/ US

Sounds like succor · Rhymes with -ʌkə(ɹ)

Where it comes from

Possibly from German Sache (“thing”).

noun suckers

  1. emphatic, slang Any thing or object. She's in love with a boy from the rodeo who pulls the rope on the chute when they let those suckers go.
  2. derogatory, slang A person. You got to hit that sucker and hit him over and over. You got to hope he runs out ...

Sucker³

noun Suckers

  1. US, dated, slang A native or resident of Illinois.

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