suck
pronunciation
How to pronounce suck in British English:
UK [sʌk]
How to pronounce suck in American English:
US [sʌk]
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- Noun:
- the act of sucking
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- Verb:
- draw into the mouth by creating a practical vacuum in the mouth
- draw something in by or as if by a vacuum
- attract by using an inexorable force, inducement, etc.
- take in, also metaphorically
- give suck to
Word Origin
- suck
- suck: [OE] Suck is part of a widespread Indo- European family of ‘suck’-words which go back to the base *seug-, *seuk-. This no doubt originated in imitation of the sound of sucking from the mother’s breast. Amongst its relatives are Latin sūgere (whose past participle sūctus gave English suction [17]), Welsh sugno, German saugen, Dutch zuigen, Swedish suga, and Danish suge. Suckle [15] was probably a back-formation from suckling [13], itself a derivative of suck.Also from suck comes sucker [14], which originally denoted a ‘baby still at the breast’; its use for a ‘gullible person’ (that is, someone as naive as an unweaned child) originated in American English in the early 19th century.=> suction, suckle
- suck (v.)
- Old English sucan "to suck," from a Germanic root of imitative origin (cognates: Old Saxon, Old High German sugan, Old Norse suga, Danish suge, Swedish suga, Middle Dutch sughen, Dutch zuigen, German saugen "to suck"), possibly from the same source as Latin sugere "to suck," succus "juice, sap;" Old Irish sugim, Welsh sugno "to suck;" see sup (v.2). As a noun from c. 1300. Meaning "do fellatio" is first recorded 1928. Slang sense of "be contemptible" first attested 1971 (the underlying notion is of fellatio). Related: Sucked; sucking. Suck eggs is from 1906. Suck hind tit "be inferior" is American English slang first recorded 1940. The old, old saying that the runt pig always sucks the hind teat is not so far wrong, as it quite approximates the condition that exists. ["The Chester White Journal," April 1921]
Example
- 1. Unlike normal leaves , the new devices would not suck co2 out of the atmosphere .
- 2. Warriors push through it and suck it up , right ?
- 3. Motley : you mean make scrum suck less ?
- 4. Ironically , europe 's congestion partly reflects the fact that its large cities suck up relatively few people .
- 5. Negative thoughts suck energy from you quickly .