▪ I. sucker, n.
(ˈsʌkə(r))
Forms: 4 souker(e, 5 sokare, -ere, sowker, sucour, 6 socar, Sc. soukar, 6–7 succor, suckar, 7 soker, succur, shucker, 9 (in sense 4) succour, dial. sooker, 6– sucker.
[f. suck v. + -er1.]
I. 1. a. A young mammal before it is weaned; † a child at the breast (even-sucker, see even- 2); now spec. a sucking-pig; a young whale-calf.
See also rabbit-sucker († rabbit's sucker).
| 1382 Wyclif 2 Macc. ix. 29 Philip, his euen souker [Vulg. collactaneus ejus]. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 463/1 Sokere, or he þat sokythe, sugens. c 1460 [see rabbit-sucker 1]. a 1549 in Gentl. Mag. (1813) May 427 Rabetts socars the dozen, xviij d. 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Mamanton o mamon, a sucker. 1607 Topsell Four-f, Beasts 673 Although the fœcundity of Swine bee great, yet it is better to kil off two or three,..for this multitude of suckers do quickly draw away all nourishment from the dam. c 1614 Fletcher Wit at Sev. Weapons iii. i, Sir Gr. I promise you, not a house-Rabbit, Sir. Old K. No sucker on 'em all. 1701 C. Wooley Jrnl. New York (1860) 38 Their [sc. whales'] young Suckers come along with them their several courses. 1836 Uncle Philip's Convers. Whale Fishery 253, I saw the whale with its sucker. 1878 Ure's Dict. Arts IV. Suppl. 380 Racks, or young rabbits about two months old..and suckers, or very young rabbits. 1883 Standard 11 June 6/3 The inquiry [for pigs] was restricted, at less money for suckers. 1902 T. F. Dale Riding & Polo Ponies iii. 45 Fillies should be taken off the moors as suckers. |
b. fig. A greenhorn, simpleton.
orig. N. Amer.| 1838 Patriot (Toronto) 29 May 1/2 It's true that pigs has their troubles like humans..constables catches 'em, dogs bites 'em, and pigs is sometimes as done-over suckers as men. 1857 San Francisco Call 5 Dec. (Thorton Amer. Gloss.), You may think I'm a sucker. 1904 E. Robins Magnetic North viii. 153 Goin' out to stir up a boom, and sell his claim to some sucker. 1927 A. Conan Doyle Case-Bk. Sherlock Holmes 92 I'll see this sucker and fill him up with a bogus confession. 1941 [see play v. 24 a]. 1957 Essays in Crit. VII. 47, I confess to being a sucker myself, if not for Malory, for Welsh legend. 1960 P. Goodman Growing up Absurd iii. 65 Our present poor are absolute sheep and suckers for the popular culture which they cannot afford, the movies, sharp clothes, and up to Cadillacs. 1973 L. Meynell Thirteen Trumpeters iv. 57 He got..a tiny percentage out of the total takings of the Casino. The more suckers who turned up the the more each sucker spent the better pleased he was. 1979 Financial Rev. Survey (Sydney) 22 Oct. 11/2 Look at the advertising man himself. He's the biggest sucker in town. From rotary engines to studded blue jeans—you'll find 'em at the agency. 1981 M. Gee Dying, in Other Words 58 Elsie laughed when she told about Pelham and called her a sucker, and said that she ought to ask him for money, men often liked giving you money, it was part of the game. |
2. One who or that which sucks with the mouth.
Cf. the animal-names
blood-sucker,
goatsucker,
honeysucker.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 463/1 Sokare of mylke, or sokerel that longe sokythe, mammotrepus. 1598 Extr. Aberd. Reg. (1848) II. 168 Devoraris and suckeris of the blude and substance of the pure. 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Tetard, A great sucker, a child that sucketh much. 1861 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XXII. i. 147 The fastest sucker will have an undue share of the milk. |
3. One who lives at the expense of another; one who draws profit or extorts subsistence from some source;
U.S. slang, a sponger, parasite.
| 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxiii. 41 Soukaris [pr. sonkaris], groukaris, gledaris, gunnaris. a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VI, 159 Flatterers to the kyng.., suckers of his purse and robbers of his subiectes. 1589 [? Lyly] Pappe w. Hatchet To Rdr., I knowe there is none of honour so carelesse..that wil succor those that be suckers of the Church. 1728 Ramsay Gen. Mistake 140 This sucker thinks nane wise, But him that can to immense riches rise. 1856 Dow Serm. III. (Bartlett) Those suckers belonging to the body loaferish, whose sole study appears to be to see how much they can get without the least physical exertion. |
4. a. A shoot thrown out from the base of a tree or plant, which in most cases may serve for propagation; now
esp. such a shoot rising from the root under ground, near to, or at some distance from, the trunk; also (now
rare), a runner (as of the strawberry); also, a lateral shoot; in the tobacco plant, an axillary shoot (
cf. sucker v. 2).
| 1577–82 Breton Toyes of Idle Head Wks. (Grosart) I. 54/1 If suckers draw the sappe from bowes on hie, Perhaps in tyme the top of tree may die. 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Pimpollo, a succor that groweth out of the bodies of trees, Stolo. 1615 W. Lawson Country Housew. Garden (1626) 4 The roots of Apples and Peares..will put foorth suckers, which are a great hinderance. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 129 Filberds are generally drawn as Suckers from the old Trees. 1682 G. Rose Sch. Instruct. Officers Month 154 Take the Succors or Stalks of these Roman Lettice, and peel of the leaves and skins. 1688 Phil. Trans. XVII. 982 When the top-bud [of the tobacco plant] is gone, it puts forth no more Leaves, but Side-branches, which they call Suckers. a 1700 Evelyn Diary 12 Sept. 1641, Out of whose stem, neere the roote, issue 5 upright and exceeding tall suckers or boles. 1707 Mortimer Husb. (1721) II. 188 Spanish Broom is not much unlike the yellow Jessamine... It..is increased by Seeds or Suckers. 1766 Complete Farmer s.v. Quince-tree, Suckers are the worst to raise them from; and cuttings are generally preferred to layers. 1772–84 Cook's Voy. (1790) I. 279 Pine⁓apples..grow so luxuriantly that seven or eight suckers have been seen adhering to one stem. 1807 Med. Jrnl. XVII. 374 Stem upright,..bare at base, at top leafy, branched, never throwing out succours. 1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 688 Clear the strawberries from suckers. 1842 Loudon Suburban Hort. 239 Plants are propagated either by seed, or by division: the latter mode including cuttings, joints, leaves, layers, suckers, slips, budding, grafting, and inarching. 1870 Hooker Stud. Flora 107 The Dwarf Cherry forms a bush with copious suckers. 1877 A. Morris Tobacco 45 The tobacco plant shoots up its stalk at top, sending out some four or five main suckers branchwise. |
b. fig. (
freq. with reference to the withdrawal of nourishment from the parent stem).
| 1591 Greene 2nd Pt. Conny Catch. Ep. Ded., Wks. (Grosart) X. 73 If the honorable and worshipfull of this land looke into their liues, and cut off such vpstarting suckars that consume the sap from the roote of the Tree. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iii. v. 163 If thou payest nothing, they will count thee a sucker, no branch. 1688 Norris Theory & Regul. Love ii. iii. 113 This [sc. self-love] is the great Sucker of Society, and that which robbs the Body Politick of its due nourishment. 1777 Sheridan Sch. Scandal ii. iii, For my part I hate to see prudence clinging to the green suckers of youth. 1792 in Ld. Auckland's Corr. (1861) II. 428, I have no olive-branches round my table, and I stand like a blasted pollard without a sucker to survive me. 1818 Hallam Mid. Ages viii. ii. (1819) III. 382 A manufacturing district..sends out, as it were, suckers into all its neighbour⁓hood. 1827 J. F. Cooper Prairie III. v. 160, I am a sycamore, that once covered many with my shadow... But a single succour is springing from my roots. 1858 Stanley Life of Arnold I. v. 215 A living sucker from the mother country. 1876 Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. xxx, This woman whose life he had allowed to send such deep suckers into his had a terrible power of annoyance in her. |
5. An organ adapted for sucking or absorbing nourishment by suction,
e.g. the proboscis of an insect, the mouth of a cyclostomous fish, a siphonostomous crustacean, etc.
| 1685 Phil. Trans. XV. 1158 The Sucker or Proboscis..wherewith the Bee sucks the Honey from the flowers. 1771 Ann. Reg. ii. 169/1 Corals and sea-pens protrude or draw back their suckers. 1817 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xvii. II. 88 Their sucker being inserted in the tender bark, is without intermission employed in absorbing the sap. 1828 Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. II. 247 The mouth consisting of a rostrum, from which a syphon or sucker is protruded at will. Ibid., Pediculus..; mouth consisting of a rostrum, inclosing an exsertile sucker. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 866 When the sucker [of the louse] is taken out a tiny blood mark appears on the surface [of the human skin]. |
6. a. Any fish having a conformation of the lips which suggests that it feeds by suction;
esp. North American cyprinoid fishes of the family
Catostomidæ.
| 1772 Phil. Trans. LXIII. 155 The fourth and last fish brought from Hudson's Bay is there called a Sucker, because it lives by suction. 1806 Pike Sources Mississ. (1810) 60 They..raise plenty of Irish potatoes, catch pike, suckers, pickerel, and white fish in abundance. 1848 Bartlett Dict. Amer., Sucker, a very common fish of the genus labeo, and of which there are many varieties, including the Chub, Mullet, Barbel, Horned Dace, etc. 1888 Goode Amer. Fishes 16 The destructive inroads of sturgeon, cat-fish and suckers upon the spawning beds in Lake Pepin. |
b. U.S. An inhabitant of the state of Illinois.
For the alleged origin of the term see
quot. 1833.
| 1833 C. F. Hoffman Winter in Far West (1835) I. 207 There was a long-haired ‘hooshier’ from Indiana, a couple of smart-looking ‘suckers’ from the southern part of Illinois, a keen-eyed leather-belted ‘badger’ from the mines of Ouisconsin. [note, So called after the fish of that name, from his going up the river to the mines, and returning at the season when the sucker makes its migrations]. 1838 Haliburton Clockm. Ser. ii. xix. (1839) 258 There's the hoosiers of Indiana, the suckers of Illinoy, the pukes of Missuri [etc.]. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Race, I found abundant points of resemblance between the Germans of the Hercynian Forest and our ‘Hoosiers’, ‘Suckers’, and ‘Badgers’, of the American woods. |
7. Used as a book-rendering of
Suctoria, the name of various groups of animals having a sucking apparatus.
| 1835–6 Todd's Cycl. Anat. I. 771/1 The suckers..live almost invariably attached to their prey. a 1843 South Zool. in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) VII. 275/1 Edwards..arranges the Crustaceans in the three sub-classes: 1. Suckers..; 2. Xyphosures..; 3. Masticators. |
8. The embolus, piston, or rising-valve of a pump; the piston of a syringe or an air-pump.
| 1611 Cotgr., Soupape,..the Supper, or Sucker of a Pumpe. 1634 J. B[ate] Myst. Nat. 7 No engine for water workes..can be made without the help of Succurs, Forcers, or Clackes. 1653 H. More Antid. Ath. ii. ii. §9 The Sucker of the Air-pump, the Cylinder being well emptied of the Air, should draw up above an hundred pound weight. 1712 J. James tr. Le Blond's Gardening 192 Almost all Water-Engines are reducible to the Bucket and Sucker. 1837 W. B. Adams Carriages 113 If the sucker of a pump be allowed to get dry it fails to draw up the water. 1862 Smiles Engineers III. 10 When the pump descends, there is heard a plunge..: then, as it rises, and the sucker begins to act [etc.]. |
9. † a. Anat. = emulgent n. Obs.| 1615 Crooke Body of Man 145 The other veine, of his office is called the emulgent or sucker. |
† b. An absorbent substance. In
fig. context.
| 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. 34 The entrie of doubts are as so many suckers or sponges, to drawe vse of knowledge. |
† c. One of a number of ‘buckets’ attached to a moving chain.
Obs.| 1686 Plot Staffordsh. 148 The chain is made with leather suckers upon it at little distances, which bring up water, and discharge themselves into a trough. |
d. A pipe or tube through which anything is drawn by suction;
locally, a hood over a fire-place.
| 1755 Churchw. Acc. Wolsingham (MS.) Sucker in y⊇ Vestery Chimnay, 3s. od. 1838 T. Thomson Chem. Org. Bodies 602 All the oil passed over with the water... It was separated from the water by means of a sucker. 1848 Bartlett Dict. Amer., Sucker, a tube used for sucking sherry-cobblers. They are made of silver, glass, straw, or sticks of maccaroni. 1876 Whitby Gloss., Sooker, in old dwellings, a brick hood or canopy..projecting over the fire for focalizing the air current. |
e. An air-hole fitted with a valve; a valve for the regulation of the flow of air.
| 1797 Monthly Mag. III. 303 When the bellows is opened, one of its sides becomes filled with ordinary air, by means of a sucker placed next to the moving leaf. 1833 Loudon Encycl. Archit. §1975 In long conduit pipes, air-holes..terminating in inverted valves or suckers, should be made at convenient distances. 1881 C. A. Edwards Organs 42 In the middle-board are placed suckers, i.e., holes provided with leather valves on the top. |
f. Bot. = haustorium.
| 1849 Balfour Man. Bot. §122 In parasites..such as Dodder.., roots are sometimes produced in the form of suckers, which enter into the cellular tissue of the plant preyed upon. 1856 Henslow Dict. Bot. Terms, Sucker,..a tubercular process..on the stems of certain flowering parasites. |
g. Golf. (See
quot. 1931.)
orig. U.S.| 1931 Daily Express 2 Sept. 1/5 The United States Golf Association passed a special rule permitting ‘suckers’—that is, balls embedded in the mud—to be lifted and cleaned without penalty. 1963 Times 9 Jan. 4/3 There do not seem to have been any ‘suckers’, although some of Ray's towering drives were repeatedly expected to produce them. |
II. 10. A part or organ adapted for adhering to an object; the adhesive pad of an insect's foot, etc.; a suctorial disk, foot, etc.
| 1681 Grew Musæum i. 105 This Fish [i.e. Remora] is able to fasten himself to any great Fish, Boat, or Ship, with the help of the Coronet or Sucker on his Head. 1817 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxiii. II. 320 Those [insects] that climb by the aid of suckers, which adhere..by the pressure of the atmosphere. 1851 Carpenter Man. Phys. (ed. 2) 521 The arms of the Cuttle-fish, which are furnished with great numbers of contractile suckers. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 1007 These, the suckers and hooklets, serve to attach the parasite to the mucous membrane of the alimentary canal of the host. |
11. Any fish characterized by a suctorial disk by which it adheres to foreign objects;
e.g. fishes of the genus
Cyclopterus (
cf. lump-sucker s.v. lump n.2), the genus
Liparis (sea-snails or snail-fishes), the remora (
Echeneis).
| 1753 Chambers' Cycl. Suppl. App., Sucker, or Suck-fish [i.e. Remora]. 1776 Pennant Brit. Zool. III. pl. xxi, Unctuous Sucker. Ibid. pl. xxii, Bimaculated Sucker. Jura Sucker. 1828 Fleming Hist. Brit. Anim. 189 L[epadogaster] cornubiensis. Cornish Sucker. 1863 Couch Brit. Fishes II. 195 Network Sucker..Liparis reticulatus. 1898 Morris Austral Eng. 443 Sucker, name given in New Zealand to the fish Diplocrepis puniceus. |
12. A toy, consisting of a round piece of leather with a string attached at the centre, which, laid wet upon a solid surface and drawn up by the string, adheres by reason of the vacuum created.
| 1681 Grew Musæum i. 105 Those round Leathers, where⁓with Boys are us'd to play, called Suckers, one of which, not above an inch and ½ diametre, being well soaked in water, will stick so fast to a Stone [etc.]. 1832 Brewster Nat. Magic x. 260 The leathern suckers used by children for lifting stones. 1906 O. Onions Drakestone xxix, The lad was..cutting a round sucker of leather. |
III. 13. colloq. (
orig. local). A sweet, a ‘suck’. Also
spec. (chiefly
N. Amer.), a lollipop;
all-day sucker: see
all a. IV. b.
| 1823 E. Moor Suff. Words 408 Suckers, a longish sort of a sweety. 1893 Kipling Many Invent. 168 We've played 'em for suckers so often. 1898 Tit-Bits 30 Apr. 85/2 ‘Young bloods’ of the town who buy their ‘Suckers’ and weeds at the shop. 1907 Dialect Notes III. 250 Sucker, n., a kind of hard candy held by a small wooden stick and sucked. ‘Let's buy suckers.’ 1938 Times 13 Jan. 14/5 One of them said: ‘I'll buy some suckers.’ 1956 J. Symons Paper Chase xii. 91 A window in which gobstoppers, liquorice bootlaces and sherbet suckers nestle. 1962 J. Ludwig in R. Weaver Canad. Short Stories (1968) 2nd Ser. 242 ‘I got no money for suckers,’ the woman said nastily. 1971 Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 19 Sept. 4/3 The small children eagerly hunted suckers that had been hidden in a large hay wagon. 1977 E. Jong Loveroot 45 Little sugar suckers with sour centers. |
IV. 14. attrib. and
Comb., as (sense 1 b)
sucker bait,
sucker bet,
sucker list,
sucker punch,
sucker trap; (sense 10)
sucker-bearing,
sucker-like,
sucker-shaped ppl. adjs.;
sucker-bashing Austral. slang (see
quots. 1945, 1953);
sucker-cup,
-foot = sucking-cup,
-foot (see
sucking vbl. n. 3 b);
sucker-disk = sense 10;
sucker-fish = senses 6 and 11,
sucking-fish;
sucker-rod (see
quots.);
sucker-up = suck n.1 10 (
cf. suck v.
1 26 e).
| 1939 Amer. Speech XIV. 80/2 Mootch is a derisive term applied to a careful customer... Retailers lose money on the ‘mootch’, because he buys only those things offered as ‘*sucker bait’ or ‘specials’. 1976 ‘Trevanian’ Main (1977) xiii. 249 ‘Have you any reason to think you might be in trouble?’ he asks. But she is not taking sucker bait like that. She smiles. |
| 1945 J. A. Allan Men & Manners in Austral. 89 Before that the settlers had cut the scrub a foot above ground, piled the refuse round the stumps, and fired it as the new shoots appeared. Even after that, ‘*sucker bashing’—which had raised the cost of clearing to 15/- an acre—had still been needed. 1953 Baker Australia Speaks iii. 80 Sucker bashing, work at cutting down saplings. 1962 Australasian Post 25 Oct. 40 Whilst sucker-bashing at Mirambigo Station. |
| 1857 Gosse Omphalos vii. 171 In the adult the *sucker-bearing shoots frequently run to a considerable distance. 1883 Encycl. Brit. XVI. 674/2 The sucker-bearing arms of male Dibranchiate Siphonopods. |
| 1920 Collier's 26 Mar. 22/3 You actually intend makin' a *sucker bet like that? 1979 Tucson (Arizona) Citizen (Weekender Mag.) 28 Apr. 9/3 Don't buy much insurance. Cover your potential catastrophic losses with insurance, but not your minor setbacks. Remember that the way insurance companies make money is by taking as many sucker bets as possible. |
| 1845 Gosse Ocean vi. (1849) 306 There is placed in each *sucker-cup of the long feet [of squids, etc.], a sharp projecting hook. |
| 1964 Oceanogr. & Marine Biol. II. 412 The functional histology of the *sucker-disk of two British regular echinoids..has been described. 1977 Playgirl May 76/2 The sucker-disc mouth [of a lamprey] was stuck solidly to the smooth skin on J. T.'s right side. |
| 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 568 The *sucker-fish. It has a long oval plate on the top of the head, by which..it clings to a ship's bottom. 1889 Nature 17 Jan. 285/2 The Employment of the Sucker-fish (Echeneis) in Turtle-fishing. 1898 Proc. Zool. Soc. Nov. 589 A small sucker-fish of the genus Lepadogaster. |
| 1870 Rolleston Anim. Life 141 The water-vascular canal supplying the ambulacral *sucker-feet. |
| 1846 Dana Zooph. iv. (1848) 31 Tentacles, which affix themselves by a *sucker-like action. |
| 1910 Collier's 17 Dec. 25/1 ‘*Sucker lists’, as the promoters call the roster of victims..are traded and passed on. 1966 T. Pynchon Crying of Lot 49 v. 114 After a week of anxiously watching the mailbox..getting nothing but sucker-list stuff through the regular deliveries. 1981 E. Ambler Care of Time v. 65 If they're pulling names on the sucker list, they can forget mine. I'm not available. |
| 1947 Amer. Speech XXII. 122/2 *Sucker punch, a hit or punch delivered without warning. 1950 J. Dempsey Championship Fighting 50 The right lead is called a sucker punch. 1979 N. Hynd False Flags xxii. 201 It was a sucker punch... The fist landed, breaking his nose. |
| 1865 Harper's Mag. Apr. 571/1 Small engines are used in most cases, with hardly sufficient power ro raise the *sucker-rod out of a deep well. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 2442/2 Sucker-rod, a rod connecting the brake of a pump with the bucket. 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss., Sucker-rod, the pump-rod of an oil-well. |
| 1840 Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 471 Limnochares, Latr., has the mouth *sucker-shaped. |
| 1953 Pohl & Kornbluth Space Merchants xvi. 156 Warren Astron had never returned to his *sucker-trap on Shopping One. 1973 Sunday Advocate-News (Barbados) 16 Dec. 3/5 So this Christmas, shop wisely, avoid the sucker traps. |
| 1911 F. Swinnerton Casement ii. 66 ‘*Suckers-up’ (those who sought by illegitimate means to ingratiate themselves with the manager). 1976 P. Lively Stitch in Time i. 10 Toady, said Maria to it [sc. a cat] silently, sucker-up. |
▸
colloq. (
orig. and chiefly
U.S.). Used generally to refer (
freq. humorously or
depreciatively) to something identified more precisely by the context.
| 1972 Van Nuys (Calif.) News 19 May 27 a/1 Davis' contribution to this music form is ‘You Just Tore My Heart Out And Stomped That Sucker Flat’. 1983 in Eng. Today Preview Issue (1984) 13/1, I..hit a rock all wrong with the rear tire and blew the sucker flat in a millisecond. 1990 J. Leavy Squeeze Play i. 32 He's probably knocking back shooters in some dive on Capitol Hill while I'm sitting here waiting for them to call this sucker on account of rain. 2002 Inquirer Mag. 21 Apr. 8/4 Once a year, about, I wheel my fridge into my freight elevator, down out the garage, and I powerwash the sucker. |
▪ II. sucker, v. (
ˈsʌkə(r))
Also 8
succour.
[f. prec.] † 1. trans. To fit or provide with a sucker or valve.
Obs. rare—1.
| 1660 R. D'acres Elem. Water-drawing iv. 33 The water will not follow after, though you suck never so strongly, and sucker it never so closely. |
2. To remove superfluous young shoots from (tobacco or maize plants);
† also, to remove (the shoots).
| a 1661 Fuller Worthies, Glouc. (1662) 349 Many got great estates thereby, notwithstanding the great care and cost in..suckering, topping,..making and rowling it [sc. tobacco]. 1705 R. Beverley Virginia ii. §20 (1722) 128, I am inform'd they [sc. Indians] used to let it all run to Seed, only succouring the Leaves, to keep the Sprouts from growing upon, and starving them. 1779 Ann. Reg. 107/1 Care must be taken to nip off the sprouts that will be continually springing up at the junction of the leaves with the stalks. This is termed ‘suckering the tobacco’. 1817–18 Cobbett Resid. U.S. (1822) 94 Fifteen acres of good Indian corn, well planted, well suckered, and well tilled in all respects. 1908 M. Johnston Lewis Rand xiv. 162 I've wanted power ever since I went barefoot and suckered tobacco. |
3. intr. To throw up suckers. Also
occas. pass., to be thrown up as a sucker.
| 1802 Trans. Soc. Arts XX. 369 When those [plants] I have now planted begin to sucker. 1894 Times 21 Feb. 4/3 Plants of Sisal hemp suckered in fourteen months. 1894 Blackmore Perlycross 256 As straight as a hazel wand sucker'd from the root. |
4. trans. To cheat, to trick.
slang (
orig. and chiefly
U.S.).
| 1939 Sat. Even. Post 14 Oct. 78/1 It was a little deal I got suckered on. 1948 Chicago Tribune 27 Mar. i. 1/4 Apparently we are again going to be suckered into approval of a glorified world WPA. 1958 J. & W. Hawkins Death Watch (1959) 87 We're going to sucker the killer out in the open. 1971 L. Gribble Alias the Victim xii. 184 He had been suckered badly. What had to be done was to get away. 1978 J. Gores Gone, no Forwarding (1979) xv. 90 Delaney suckered us into making a payment which he now claims is an admission of guilt because we made it. |
Hence
ˈsuckering vbl. n. in sense 2 (also
attrib.).
| 1817–18 Cobbett Resid. U.S. (1822) 138 Where would the hands come from to do the marking; the dropping and covering of the Corn;..the suckering when that work is done, as it always ought to be? 1877 A. Morris Tobacco 44 In suckering, the work is done with both hands, commencing at the top of the plant. 1881 Encycl. Brit. XII. 235/1 The soil should be carefully opened and the shoots removed with a suckering iron. |
▪ III. sucker see
succour,
sugar.