sucker

[suhk-er] /ˈsʌk ər/
noun
1.
a person or thing that sucks.
2.
Informal. a person easily cheated, deceived, or imposed upon.
3.
an infant or a young animal that is suckled, especially a suckling pig.
4.
a part or organ of an animal adapted for sucking nourishment, or for adhering to an object as by suction.
5.
any of several freshwater, mostly North American food fishes of the family Catostomidae, having thick lips: some are now rare.
6.
Informal. a lollipop.
7.
the piston of a pump that works by suction, or the valve of such a piston.
8.
a pipe or tube through which something is drawn or sucked.
9.
Botany. a shoot rising from a subterranean stem or root.
10.
Informal. a person attracted to something as indicated:
He's a sucker for new clothes.
11.
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.
verb (used with object)
12.
Slang. to make a sucker of; fool; hoodwink:
another person suckered by a con artist.
verb (used without object)
13.
to send out suckers or shoots, as a plant.
Origin
1350-1400; 1835-45 for def 2; Middle English; see suck, -er1
Related forms
suckerlike, adjective
Can be confused
succor, sucker.
Examples from the web for sucker
  • Mallon was not a pilgrim, or by his own reckoning a sucker.
  • If you buy their lies, you're either a sucker or getting paid by them to spread their unfounded talking points.
  • Working from the base, pull off the skin and sucker cups-everything should easily slide off, leaving the meat ready for use.
  • Stop being a sucker and letting these organic companies take advantage of your fear.
  • Not only that, but that sucker can spin: conservation of angular momentum means that it can spin dozens of times per second.
  • That's you, sucker, not in it for the free ride and not supervising it for commission.
  • Only after they branched off did they lose the sucker found on flukes and monogeneans, for example.
  • Only takes a bit more salt intrusion to write the sucker off.
  • Stick an amp meter on the sucker and watch the current pulse by at those same high frequencies.
  • Well, a personal choice for everyone except that poor little sucker lying on the chopping block.
British Dictionary definitions for sucker

sucker

/ˈsʌkə/
noun
1.
a person or thing that sucks
2.
(slang) a person who is easily deceived or swindled
3.
(slang) a person who cannot resist the attractions of a particular type of person or thing: he's a sucker for blondes
4.
a young animal that is not yet weaned, esp a suckling pig
5.
(zoology) an organ that is specialized for sucking or adhering
6.
a cup-shaped device, generally made of rubber, that may be attached to articles allowing them to adhere to a surface by suction
7.
(botany)
  1. a strong shoot that arises in a mature plant from a root, rhizome, or the base of the main stem
  2. a short branch of a parasitic plant that absorbs nutrients from the host
8.
a pipe or tube through which a fluid is drawn by suction
9.
any small mainly North American cyprinoid fish of the family Catostomidae, having toothless jaws and a large sucking mouth
10.
any of certain fishes that have sucking discs, esp the clingfish or sea snail
11.
a piston in a suction pump or the valve in such a piston
verb
12.
(transitive) to strip off the suckers from (a plant)
13.
(intransitive) (of a plant) to produce suckers
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.

sucker in Science
sucker
  (sŭk'ər)   

  1. A part by which an animal sucks blood from or uses suction to cling to another animal. Leeches and remoras have suckers.

  2. 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.


Slang definitions & phrases for sucker

sucker

noun
  1. An easy victim; dupe; mark, patsy: I'm no sucker/ I'm a sucker for a beautiful blonde (1838+)
  2. Any specified object, esp one that is prodigious, troublesome, effective, etc; momma, motherfucker • A euphemism for cocksucker: It took me 90 days to get that sucker straightened out (1978+)
verb

To victimize or dupe someone: if I can sucker him into drawing first (1939+)

Related Terms

cocksucker, egg-sucker

[origin uncertain; perhaps fr the sucker, a fish supposed to be easily caught; perhaps fr the notion of an unweaned and relatively helpless creature, as suggested by an earlier sense, ''greenhorn, simpleton'']