Word.ws English Dictionary

sucker

UK/ˈsʌk.ə/US/ˈsʌk.ɚ/

sucker noun: a person or animal that sucks, especially a breast or udder; especially a suckling animal, young mammal before it is weaned.

Noun (1)

sucker (plural suckers)

  1. A person or animal that sucks, especially a breast or udder; especially a suckling animal, young mammal before it is weaned.
    • Sir Gregory. I promise you, not a house-rabbit, sir. Sir Perfidious. No sucker on ’em all.1647, Uncertain, perhaps Beaumont and Fletcher or Thomas Middleton and William Rowley?, Wit at Several Weapons, act 3, scene 1, page 44
  2. An undesired stem growing out of the roots or lower trunk of a shrub or tree, especially from the rootstock of a grafted plant or tree.
  3. (broadly) A parasite; a sponger.
    • They who constantly converse with men far above their estates shall reap shame and loss thereby; if thou payest nothing, they will count thee a sucker, no branch.1642, Thomas Fuller, The Holy State and the Prophane State
    • Of the scaly tribe, I may mention those suckers belonging to the body loaferish, that never rise to the surface of respectability, but are always groveling in the mud of corruption, whose sole study appears to be to see how much they can get without the least physical exertion; and who would rather...1841, Elbridge Gerry [Dow, Jr.] Paige, Short Patent Sermons, revised and corrected edition, New York: Lawrence Labree, page 232
  4. An organ or body part that does the sucking; especially a round structure on the bodies of some insects, frogs, and octopuses that allows them to stick to surfaces.
  5. A thing that works by sucking something.
  6. The embolus, or bucket, of a pump; also, the valve of a pump basket.
    • The last Mr. Hobbs’s principal explanations, is of the experiment wherein above 100 pound weight, being hung at the depress’d sucker, the sucker was, notwithstanding, impell’d up again, by the air, to the top of the cylinder.1725, Robert Boyle, The Philosophical Works, page 687
  7. A pipe through which anything is drawn.
  8. A small piece of leather, usually round, having a string attached to the center, which, when saturated with water and pressed upon a stone or other body having a smooth surface, adheres, by reason of the atmospheric pressure, with such force as to enable a considerable weight to be thus lifted by the string; formerly used by children as a plaything.
  9. (UK, colloquial) A suction cup.
  10. An animal such as the octopus and remora, which adhere to other bodies with such organs.
  11. Any fish in the family Catostomidae of North America and eastern Asia, which have mouths modified into downward-pointing, suckerlike structures for feeding in bottom sediments.
  12. (US, informal) A lollipop; a piece of candy which is sucked.
Show 6 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (archaic, slang) A hard drinker.
  2. (US, obsolete) An inhabitant of Illinois.
    • There is a swarm of 'suckers,' 'hoosiers,' 'buckeyes,' 'corn-crackers,' and 'wolverines,' eternally on the qui vive, in those parts—a migratory race of bipeds—who float about from spot to spot, 'squatting,' for the nonce, wherever their fancy or interest may incline them; and a rougher set of men...1848, Francis Alexander Durivage, George P. Burnham, “How the Wolverine Discovered the Lead Mine—A Fact”, in Stray Subjects, Arrested And Bound Over, page 79
    • A band of music was sent thirty miles to wake up the sleepy suckers, and draw them, by the magic of their music, to the Douglas gathering at Quincy, Illinois.1854 October 19, New York Tribune
    Synonyms:
    Illinoisian
  3. (US, obsolete) A migrant lead miner working in the Driftless Area of northwest Illinois, southwest Wisconsin, and northeast Iowa, working in summer and leaving for winter, so named because of the similarity to the migratory patterns of the North American Catostomidae.
  4. (US, slang) A person who is easily deceived, tricked or persuaded to do something; a naive or gullible person.
    • One poor sucker had actually given her his life’s savings.
    • This ſucker thinks nane wiſe. / But him that can to immenſe riches riſe:1728, Allan Ramsay, “The General Mistake”, in The Poems of Allan Ramsay, new edition, volume 1, published 1800, page 352
  5. (informal) A person irresistibly attracted by something specified.
    • I'm a sucker for ghost stories.
    • He must be a sucker for punishment to try to climb that mountain barefoot.
  6. (British, obsolete, slang, vulgar) The penis.
    • Thus to and again to our paſtime we went, / And my Cards I play'd fairly to Jenny's content; / I work'd at her Pump till my Sucker grew dry, / Then I left pumping, a good Reaſon why.1750, “Ge ho, Dobbin or the Waggoner”, in The Tulip, page 2

Verb

sucker (third-person singular simple present suckers, present participle suckering, simple past and past participle suckered)

  1. (transitive) To strip the suckers or shoots from; to deprive of suckers.
    • to sucker maize
    • It is as important to sucker tobacco carefully and as often as the situation demands it as it is to search for and remove the green-horn worm.1881, F. R. Diffenderffer, “Tobacco Culture”, in Agriculture of Pennsylvania, volume 5, page 91
  2. (intransitive) To produce suckers; to throw up additional stems or shoots.
    • I have let my vines sucker more than I ought this year, perhaps, but I want to start them out in better shape by encouraging a large growth of wood.1880, Samuel Thorton Kemeys Prime, The Model Farms and Their Methods, page 423
    • We prefer to plant in rows instead of hills because the plants sucker so badly here, and because, with our scanty rainfall, it is better to have the plants isolated than bunched.1892, Washington Agricultural Experiment Station, “Tests of vegetables in the experiment station garden”, in Bulletin, number 57, page 45
  3. (intransitive) To move or attach oneself by means of suckers.
    • I am now the octopus, mucus, held together by soft moist membrane, suckering everywhere.1961, Olympia, numbers 1-4, page 83
    • He paused at the octopus tank. Clyde, our resident giant Pacific octopus, was suckering his way across the front panel.2017, Elizabeth Hand, Bradford Morrow, Other Aliens
  4. (informal, transitive) To fool someone; to take advantage of someone.
    • The salesman suckered him into signing an expensive maintenance contract.
    • I asked him to tell me specifically just what his gripe might be, but he told me never mind what the details are; that he had put his faith in you on my recommendation but that you had suckered him and he refused to tell me anything about how you suckered him.1963, Sewell Thomas, Yaquí Gold, page 170
  5. (informal, transitive, usually) To lure someone.
    • As the escort carriers chug away south, their single 5-inch rear guns are now cleared to open fire as the range closes. Disappointed gunners on other weapons are informed, "Just wait a little longer, boys; we're suckering them into 40-mm range."2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 24:22 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?, archived from the original on 03 Nov 2022

Noun (2)

sucker (plural suckers)

  1. (emphatic, slang) Any thing or object.
    • She's in love with a boy from the rodeo who pulls the rope on the chute when they let those suckers go.1975, Frank Zappa, San Ber'dino
    • RAMSAY: Dave, can you land this sucker?1984, Runaway (film): scene in a helicopter, around 5 min 20 sec
    Synonyms:
    thing, object
  2. (derogatory, slang) A person.
    • You got to hit that sucker and hit him over and over. You got to hope he runs out ...2009, Stephen Hunter, The Day Before Midnight: A Novel, Bantam, →ISBN, page 232
    • Maybe you hit that sucker and we'll get some DNA ...2016, John Sandford, Extreme Prey, Prey, →ISBN, page 244

Noun (3) capitalized: Sucker

Sucker (plural Suckers)

  1. (US, dated, slang) A native or resident of Illinois.

sucker meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Bengali

sucker in Hindi

चूसनेवाला

sucker in Tamil

எளிதில் ஏமாறுபவர்

sucker in Marathi

a sucker or stole
पील pīl

sucker in Bengali

চোষক, বোকা ব্যক্তি, চুষিকাঠি
More languagesFewer languages
sucker in Telugu
చూషకము cūṣakamu
sucker in Kannada
ಹೀರುತಟ್ಟೆ, ಬೇರು ಮೊಳಕೆ
sucker in Punjabi
ਚੂਸਣ ਵਾਲਾ
sucker in Gujarati
ચૂસી લેનાર
sucker in Tagalog
suwi
sucker in Arabic
مَاصّ māṣṣ, مُغَفَّل muḡaffal
sucker in Indonesian
tolol
sucker in Persian
مکنده makande

Examples of sucker in a sentence

  • See if you can get that sucker working again.
  • They had sorcerized me, and I were a done-over sucker; so I jist gin up.1859, Oliver Stanley, “The Escape from the Whale”, in Hardin E. Taliaferro, editor, Fisher's River (North Carolina): Scenes and Characters...
  • “George, them fellows took me for a sucker.1887, George Devol, Forty Years a Gambler on the Mississippi, page 221:
  • "Do you think I am easy and that you can play me for a sucker?1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Which Introduces Some Very Physical Phenomena”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html)...
  • “After twenty years you’re still a sucker for her lies? […]”1934, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 13, in The Thin Man, New York: Vintage, published 1972, page 59:

All 40 example sentences with sucker

Synonyms of sucker

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of sucker

Forms of sucker

Noun
pluralsuckers
pluralSuckers
Verb
third-person singular presentsuckers
present participlesuckering
past participlesuckered
pastsuckered

Plural of sucker: suckers

Origin of sucker

From Middle English souker, sokere, sukkere, soukere, equivalent to suck (verb) + -er. Compare Saterland Frisian Suuger, West Frisian sûker (“sucker”), Dutch zuiger (“sucker”), German Sauger (“dummy; vacuum”).

Possibly from German Sache (“thing”).

Words formed from sucker

Phrases with sucker

2 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with sucker

8 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sucker

What does sucker mean?
Sucker means a person or animal that sucks, especially a breast or udder; especially a suckling animal, young mammal before it is weaned.
What is sucker in Hindi?
Sucker in Hindi is चूसनेवाला. See Sucker meaning in Hindi.
How do you use sucker in a sentence?
See if you can get that sucker working again.
What part of speech is sucker?
Sucker can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce sucker?
Sucker is pronounced /ˈsʌk.ə/ (UK).
What is the plural of sucker?
The plural of sucker is suckers.

Words near sucker in the dictionary

  1. suckee
  2. sucken
  3. suckener
  4. suckeners
  5. suckens
  6. sucker
  7. sucker bet
  8. sucker bets
  9. sucker for punishment
  10. sucker punch
  11. sucker punched

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sucker (page history and authors); Sucker (page history and authors); sucker (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sucker (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); पील (Marathi) (page history and authors); sucker (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sucker (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sucker (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sucker (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-sucker.ogg.

Cite this entry: “sucker.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sucker. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.