n. 1. One who, or that which, sucks; esp., one of the organs by which certain animals, as the octopus and remora, adhere to other bodies. [ 1913 Webster ] 2. A suckling; a sucking animal. Beau. & Fl. [ 1913 Webster ] 3. The embolus, or bucket, of a pump; also, the valve of a pump basket. Boyle. [ 1913 Webster ] 4. A pipe through which anything is drawn. [ 1913 Webster ] 5. 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; -- used by children as a plaything. [ 1913 Webster ] 6. (Bot.) A shoot from the roots or lower part of the stem of a plant; -- so called, perhaps, from diverting nourishment from the body of the plant. [ 1913 Webster ] 7. (Zool.) (a) Any one of numerous species of North American fresh-water cyprinoid fishes of the family Catostomidae; so called because the lips are protrusile. The flesh is coarse, and they are of little value as food. The most common species of the Eastern United States are the northern sucker (Catostomus Commersoni), the white sucker (Catostomus teres), the hog sucker (Catostomus nigricans), and the chub, or sweet sucker (Erimyzon sucetta). Some of the large Western species are called buffalo fish, red horse, black horse, and suckerel. (b) The remora. (c) The lumpfish. (d) The hagfish, or myxine. (e) A California food fish (Menticirrus undulatus) closely allied to the kingfish (a); -- called also bagre. [ 1913 Webster ] 8. A parasite; a sponger. See def. 6, above. [ 1913 Webster ] 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. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ] 9. A hard drinker; a soaker. [ Slang ] [ 1913 Webster ] 10. A greenhorn; someone easily cheated, gulled, or deceived. [ Slang, U.S. ] [ 1913 Webster ] 11. A nickname applied to a native of Illinois. [ U. S. ] [ 1913 Webster ] 12. A person strongly attracted to something; -- usually used with for; as, he's a sucker for tall blondes. [ PJC ] 11. Any thing or person; -- usually implying annoyance or dislike; as, I went to change the blade and cut my finger on the sucker. [ Slang ] [ PJC ]
Carp sucker,
Cherry sucker, etc. See under Carp, Cherry, etc. --
Sucker fish. See Sucking fish, under Sucking. --
Sucker rod, a pump rod. See under Pump. --
Sucker tube (Zool.), one of the external ambulacral tubes of an echinoderm, -- usually terminated by a sucker and used for locomotion. Called also sucker foot. See Spatangoid. [ 1913 Webster ]
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