What does "sucker" mean?
A person or animal that sucks, especially a breast or udder; especially a suckling animal, young mammal before it is weaned.
Sucker
/ˈsʌk.ɚ/ noun, verb, slang
noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A person or animal that sucks, especially a breast or udder; especially a suckling animal, young mammal before it is weaned.
- Grammar: sucker is listed as noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: fool, lollipop, mark, all-day sucker.
- Useful contrasts: grow, honesty, main stem.
- Usage evidence: You take me for a sucker, don't you?
How to use "sucker"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "sucker" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "sucker" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "sucker" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "sucker" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "sucker" is acting as noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "fool" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "sucker", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 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."
- 2 Any thing or object. emphatic, slang
"She's in love with a boy from the rodeo who pulls the rope on the chute when they let those suckers go."
- 3 A native or resident of Illinois. US, dated, slang
- 4 mostly North American freshwater fishes with a thick-lipped mouth for feeding by suction; related to carps wordnet
- 5 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.
Show 23 more definitions
- 6 A person. derogatory, slang
"You got to hit that sucker and hit him over and over. You got to hope he runs out ..."
- 7 an organ specialized for sucking nourishment or for adhering to objects by suction wordnet
- 8 A parasite; a sponger. broadly
"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."
- 9 hard candy on a stick wordnet
- 10 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.
- 11 flesh of any of numerous North American food fishes with toothless jaws wordnet
- 12 A thing that works by sucking something.
- 13 a person who is gullible and easy to take advantage of wordnet
- 14 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."
- 15 a drinker who sucks (as at a nipple or through a straw) wordnet
- 16 A pipe through which anything is drawn.
- 17 a shoot arising from a plant's roots wordnet
- 18 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.
- 19 A suction cup. British, colloquial
- 20 An animal such as the octopus and remora, which adhere to other bodies with such organs.
- 21 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.
- 22 A lollipop; a piece of candy which is sucked. US, informal
- 23 A hard drinker. archaic, slang
- 24 An inhabitant of Illinois. US, obsolete
"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 will rarely be met with, saving the genuine 'voyageurs,' or 'trappers'—so notorious for their hardihood."
- 25 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. US, obsolete
- 26 A person who is easily deceived, tricked or persuaded to do something; a naive or gullible person. US, slang
"One poor sucker had actually given her his life’s savings."
- 27 A person irresistibly attracted by something specified. informal
"I'm a sucker for ghost stories."
- 28 The penis. British, obsolete, slang, vulgar
"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."
Verb
- 1 To strip the suckers or shoots from; to deprive of suckers. transitive
"to sucker maize"
- 2 To produce suckers; to throw up additional stems or shoots. intransitive
"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."
- 3 To move or attach oneself by means of suckers. intransitive
"I am now the octopus, mucus, held together by soft moist membrane, suckering everywhere."
- 4 To fool someone; to take advantage of someone. informal, transitive
"The salesman suckered him into signing an expensive maintenance contract."
- 5 To lure someone. informal, transitive, usually
"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.""
Example
"You take me for a sucker, don't you?"
Common questions
What is a synonym for "sucker"?
Common synonyms include: fool, lollipop, mark, all-day sucker, aspirator, babe.
How do you use "sucker" in a sentence?
You take me for a sucker, don't you?
How do you pronounce "sucker"?
Pronounced /ˈsʌk.ɚ/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
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”).
Etymology 2
Possibly from German Sache (“thing”).