ˈsucket Now rare exc. arch. and Hist.
Forms: 5 soket, 6 suckitte, -ette, succet, suk(k)ett, sok(k)ett, 6–7 socket, suckett, 6–8 sucket.
[Altered form of succate after suck v. and -et1.]
a. = succade.
| 1481–90 Howard Househ. Bks. (Roxb.) 42 Item, soket viij. li. vj. onces viij.s. vj.d. 1509 Test. Ebor. (Surtees) V. 5 Comfettes, sugir plattes, and suckittes. 1542 Ibid. VI. 167 A longe silver spone for sokett, a longe forke of silver for sokett. 1544 T. Phaer Regim. Lyfe (1553) E.ij, Sucket of citrons. 1611 Cotgr., Carbassat, wet sucket, made of the vpper part of the long white Pompion, cut in slices. 1615 Markham Eng. Housew. ii. 78 Your preserued fruites shall be disht vp first, your Pastes next, your wet Suckets after them, then your dried Suckets. 1662 Hibbert Body Div. i. 77 Pope Alexander poysoned the Turks brother in candid suckets. 1688 Holme Armoury iii. iii. 80/1 Dried Sweet⁓meats & Suckets of Oranges. 1751 Affect. Narr. H.M.S. Wager 7 Here is plenty of Citrons, of which they make a fine Sweet-meat, or Sucket. 1929 E. Linklater Poet's Pub xii. 144 The table already gleamed with..jumbals and marchpane and suckets of one kind and another. 1959 P. Vansittart Tournament xiv. 115 Suckets shaped as unicorns, swans, frogs. |
b. transf. and fig.
| 1607 T. Walkington Optic Glass 27 This made the Castalianist..to bee esteemed..the Marmalade and Sucket of the Muses. 1635 R. Brathwait Arcadian Princ. iii. 214 Celsus a theevish Poet..was arraign'd..For stealing Suckets from an others hive. 1654 Cleveland Poems 4 Natures confectioner, the Bee, Whose suckets are moist Alchimie. 1917 A. Waugh Loom of Youth 10 ‘Those who can, do, while those who can't, teach.’ This choice sucket..comes consolingly to the ears of one whom the chances and caprices of life may have thrown casually on the preceptorial beach. |
c. As a term of endearment.
| 1605 Tryall Chev. ii. i, Peace, good Thomasin, silence, sweet socket. |
d. attrib. and Comb.
| 1575 Laneham Let. (1871) 23 The bridecup, foormed of a sweet sucket barrell. 1636 Davenant Wits ii. i, Now does my blood wamble! you! Sucket eater! 1938 Currier & Buhler Marks Early Amer. Silversmiths 165 Forks were apparently unknown except for serving—to which use were doubtless put the small sucket-forks..for sweetmeats. 1956 G. Taylor Silver v. 112 The three prongs were curved, unlike the two prongs of the sucket fork. 1977 Fleming & Honour Penguin Dict. Decorative Arts 768/2 Sucket fork, an implement with a spoon at one end and a two-pronged fork at the other, intended for eating fruit, especially succade. |
¶ Reliable evidence for the survival of sucket in mod. dialects is wanting. Halliwell's entry sucket, a young rabbit, is clearly an error for sucker.