suck

From Middle English souken, suken, from Old English sūcan (“to suck”), from Proto-West Germanic *sūkan, from Proto-Germanic *sūkaną (“to suck, suckle”), from Proto-Indo-European *sewg-, *sewk- (“to suck”). Cognate with Scots souke (“to suck”), obsolete Dutch zuiken (“to suck”), Limburgish zuken, zoeken (“to suck”). Akin also to Old English sūgan (“to suck”), West Frisian sûge, sûge (“to suck”), Dutch zuigen (“to suck”), German saugen (“to suck”), Swedish suga (“to suck”), Icelandic sjúga (“to suck”), Latin sūgō (“suck”), Welsh sugno (“suck”). Related to soak.

• (US, Southern England) enPR: sŭk, IPA^(key): /sʌk/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (Northern England, Ireland) enPR: so͝ok, IPA^(key): /sʊk/
• Rhymes: -ʌk
• Hyphenation: suck

suck (countable and uncountable, plural sucks)

1. An instance of drawing something into one's mouth by inhaling.
   • 2001, D. Martin Doney, Prayer Capsule: A Book of Honesty, page 261:

     Bammer agreed “Probably a good idea,” he agreed with a quick suck on his straw, “won't stop you from picking up any of these chicks, though.”

2. (uncountable) Milk drawn from the breast.
   • 2010, Barbara Tieken, Bull Vaulter: Alena of the Isle of Green, page 202:

     The infant took suck in an instant, pulling strongly.

3. An indrawing of gas or liquid caused by suction.
   • 2005, Nick Gibbs, Ultimate Woodworking Course, page 136:

     On a proper workbench this can often be achieved between the end vice and a dog, though more sophisticated products use either the suck of a vacuum cleaner or just friction.

4. (uncountable) The ability to suck; suction.
   • 1972, Design, numbers 277-282, page 68:

     Vacuum for the park Mosuc is a street and park vacuum cleaner which its designers, Hollowell Engineering, Dearborn, Michigan, like to claim has more suck than most[.]

   • 2017, Oliver B. Zimmerman, Internal Combustion Engines and Tractors, page 153:

     [D]rop the head for less suck or raise it for more. A plow should not have too much suck or it will run on its nose in hard land and put unnecessary weight.

5. A part of a river towards which strong currents converge making navigation difficult.
   • 1879, Edward Deering Mansfield, Personal Memories, Social, Political, and Literary, page 302:

     Marvelous stories were told of "the suck" in early times. It was said that the water was so compressed that it would bear an ax.

6. (Canada) A weak, self-pitying person; a person who refuses to go along with others, especially out of spite; a crybaby or sore loser.
   • 1999, Hiromi Goto, “Drift”, in Ms., volume 9, number 3, pages 82–6:

     “Why're you bothering to take her anywhere? I can't stand traveling with her. You're such a suck,” her sister said. Waved her smoke. “No fucking way I'm going.”

   • 2008, Beth Hitchcock, “Parenting Pair”, in Today's Parent, volume 25, number 5, page 64:

     I used to think she was such a suck! She'd cry when I took to the ice, whether I skated well or badly. She'd cry when I left the house.

7. A sycophant, especially a child.
   • 1916, James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Macmillan Press, page 23:

     You are McGlade's suck.

8. (slang, dated) A short drink, especially a dram of spirits.
9. (vulgar) An act of fellatio.
   • 2012, Alex Carreras, Cruising with Destiny, page 12:

     Nate exhaled a long, slow breath. What the hell was he thinking? He couldn't cruise the steam room looking for married men looking for a quick suck. He needed to shoot his load, but was he really that desperate?

10. (slang, uncountable, sometimes considered vulgar) Badness or mediocrity.
    • 2019, Justin Blackburn, The Bisexual Christian Suburban Failure Enlightening Bipolar Blues, page 34:

      You don't have to call me on for everything, ok? I'm aware of my suck.

• (crybaby): sook
• (crybaby): sooky baby

suck (third-person singular simple present sucks, present participle sucking, simple past and past participle sucked)

1. (transitive) To use the mouth and lips to pull in (a liquid, especially milk from the breast).
2. (intransitive) To perform such an action; to feed from a breast or teat.
3. (transitive) To put the mouth or lips to (a breast, a mother etc.) to draw in milk.
4. (transitive) To extract, draw in (a substance) from or out of something.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.i:

     That she may sucke their life, and drinke their blood, / With which she from her childhood had bene fed.

5. (transitive, archaic) To inhale (air), to draw (breath).
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. The First Part , 2nd edition, part 1, London: Richard Iones, , published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene vi:

     And ſince we all haue ſuckt on[e] wholſome aire, / And with the ſame proportion of Elements, / Reſolue, I hope we are reſembled, / Uowing our loues to equall death and life, […]

6. (transitive) To work the lips and tongue on (an object) to extract moisture or nourishment; to absorb (something) in the mouth.
7. (transitive) To pull (something) in a given direction, especially without direct contact.
   • 1976 August 14, Matthew Wolfe, “Cruising a Tea Room or; Does Gertrude Stein Really Drink Coffee”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 7, page 15:

     Cigarette smoke was sucked out through the cracks in the glass of the glazed panes overhead the side street and the parking lot.

8. (transitive, slang, vulgar) To perform fellatio.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:perform oral sex

   • 1970-1975, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure

     the way he arched his back and spread his legs when he wanted me to suck him.

9. (chiefly Canada, US, intransitive, stative, colloquial, sometimes vulgar) To be inferior or objectionable: a general term of disparagement, sometimes used with at to indicate a particular area of deficiency.
   • 1969 November 2, Sid Moody with Jules Loh and Richard Meyer, “The USS Pueblo: 22: Panmunjom: General Pak Had One Last Trump”, in Charlotte Observer‎, page H-25:

     Schumacher recalls Bucher had also written 'Communism sucks' on the underside of his table

   • 1970 January 8, Hunter S. Thompson, “”, in Fear and Loathing in America‎, New York: Simon & Schuster, published 2000, →ISBN, page 251:

     it has a few very high points . . . but as a novel, it sucks

   • 1990 December 31, Jim Davis, Garfield Takes Up Space (Garfield) (comic):

     Garfield: Well, another year is almost under the belt / And I've had 313 pretty good days / The Mondays sucked.

• sugescent

• →⇒ Vietnamese: sục

• cusk

From Old Swedish sukker, from the root of the verb sucka (“to let out a sigh”).

• IPA^(key): /sɵk/
• Hyphenation: suck

suck c

1. sigh; a deep and prolonged audible inspiration or respiration
2. (colloquial, usually in negated expressions) chance

   Han har inte en suck

   He doesn't stand a chance

suck

1. sigh

   suck och stön

   sigh and moan (expresses frustration)

• suck in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• suck in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• suck in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)