sucker
[suhk-er]
- a person or thing that sucks.
- Informal. a person easily cheated, deceived, or imposed upon.
- an infant or a young animal that is suckled, especially a suckling pig.
- a part or organ of an animal adapted for sucking nourishment, or for adhering to an object as by suction.
- any of several freshwater, mostly North American food fishes of the family Catostomidae, having thick lips: some are now rare.
- Informal. a lollipop.
- the piston of a pump that works by suction, or the valve of such a piston.
- a pipe or tube through which something is drawn or sucked.
- Botany. a shoot rising from a subterranean stem or root.
- Informal. a person attracted to something as indicated: He's a sucker for new clothes.
- Slang. any person or thing: He's one of those smart, handsome suckers everybody likes. They're good boots, but the suckers pinch my feet.
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- Slang. to make a sucker of; fool; hoodwink: another person suckered by a con artist.
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- to send out suckers or shoots, as a plant.
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Origin of sucker
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for sucker
Contemporary Examples
Sucker," the young man taunted, "I should be fighting Patterson, not you.
Historical Examples
An Indian, of the Sucker tribe, whom he had previously met, was sitting there.
Murder PointConingsby Dawson
Let us in the first place, in this chapter, speak of the first, the Sucker.
The SeaJules Michelet
In the oldest strata we find two wondrous creatures, the Devourer and the Sucker.
The SeaJules Michelet
The Sucker of the soft gelatinous world, was himself soft and gelatinous.
The SeaJules Michelet
Sucker said at once, “You may eat me if you can, but that has still to be decided.”
sucker
- a person or thing that sucks
- slang a person who is easily deceived or swindled
- slang a person who cannot resist the attractions of a particular type of person or thinghe's a sucker for blondes
- a young animal that is not yet weaned, esp a suckling pig
- zoology an organ that is specialized for sucking or adhering
- a cup-shaped device, generally made of rubber, that may be attached to articles allowing them to adhere to a surface by suction
- botany
- a strong shoot that arises in a mature plant from a root, rhizome, or the base of the main stem
- a short branch of a parasitic plant that absorbs nutrients from the host
- a pipe or tube through which a fluid is drawn by suction
- any small mainly North American cyprinoid fish of the family Catostomidae, having toothless jaws and a large sucking mouth
- any of certain fishes that have sucking discs, esp the clingfish or sea snail
- a piston in a suction pump or the valve in such a piston
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- (tr) to strip off the suckers from (a plant)
- (intr) (of a plant) to produce suckers
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for sucker
n.
"young mammal before it is weaned," late 14c., agent noun from suck. Slang meaning "person who is easily deceived" is first attested 1836, American English, on notion of naivete; the verb in this sense is from 1939. But another theory traces the slang meaning to the fish called a sucker (1753), on the notion of being easy to catch in their annual migrations. Meaning "lollipop" is from 1823.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
sucker
[sŭk′ər]
- A part by which an animal sucks blood from or uses suction to cling to another animal. Leeches and remoras have suckers.
- A shoot growing from the base or root of a tree or shrub and giving rise to a new plant, a clone of the plant from which it comes. The growth of suckers is a form of asexual reproduction.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.