SUCKER


Meaning of SUCKER in English

I. ˈsəkə(r) noun

( -s )

Etymology: Middle English soker, souker, from soken, souken to suck + -er — more at suck

1.

a. : one that sucks especially a breast or udder : suckling ; specifically : an unweaned domestic animal

b. : a device for creating or regulating suction (as a piston or valve in a pump)

c.

(1) : a plaything consisting of a soft leather disk suspended from a string that when wet clings to a surface of an object and lifts it

(2) : a pipe or tube through which something is drawn by suction

(3) : one of several cup-shaped vacuum-operated rubber devices to pick up and carry material in bookbinding ; specifically : one that feeds material in a folding or gathering machine

d.

(1) : an organ in various animals for adhering or holding consisting in its simplest form of a soft pad or disk often somewhat concave that when closely applied to an object adheres as a result of atmospheric pressure : a sucking disk — see echinococcus illustration

(2) : a mouth (as of a leech) adapted for sucking or adhering or both

(3) : a tube foot of an echinoderm ending in a sucking disk

2. : a person who lives by extortion or parasitism

3.

a. : a shoot originating from the roots or lower part of the stem of a plant and usually developing rapidly often at the expense of the plant ; also : an accessory propagative shoot

a sucker of pineapple

b. : haustorium

4.

a. : any of numerous freshwater fishes of the family Catostomidae that are closely related to the carps but are distinguished from them by the structure of the mouth which usually has thick soft lips and of the lower pharyngeal bones, that live and feed near the bottom, that in the case of larger forms ascend small streams and brooks to spawn, that have inferior flesh frequently eaten in regions where they are abundant, and that except for two Asiatic species are confined to No. America — see buffalo fish , hog sucker , redhorse

b. : any of various marine or freshwater true fishes (as the lumpfish, remora, or clingfish) with a sucking organ or mouth like that of a sucker — often used with a qualifying adjective

c. : hagfish

d. : lamprey

5. : lollipop b

6.

a.

(1) : a person easily cheated or deceived ; specifically : a mark for a gambler or confidence man

(2) : a person irresistibly attracted by a specific type of object

I've always been a sucker for animal acts — Al Hine

b. : greenhorn

c. : a customer or frequenter of a circus, carnival, gambling establishment, or racetrack or a nonprofessional investor in securities

d. : illinoisan — used as a nickname

II. verb

( suckered ; suckered ; suckering -k(ə)riŋ ; suckers )

transitive verb

1. : to remove suckers from

sucker tobacco

2. : to make a sucker of : cheat , deceive , swindle

got suckered out of six grand — Gerald Hughes

intransitive verb

: to form or send out suckers

corn suckers abundantly

III. noun

— used as a generalized term of reference

see if you can get that sucker working again

Webster's New International English Dictionary.      Новый международный словарь английского языка Webster.