suck

/sək/

/sək/

Other forms: sucked; sucking; sucks

To suck is to draw something by force. Vacuum cleaners suck dirt from the floor and milkshake drinkers suck this liquid, tasty liquid through a straw.

Drinking something by pulling it into your mouth is to suck it. You can also suck on something, like a peppermint or a thumb, by holding it in your mouth. Objects can suck too — a fan sucks warm air out the window. You can also suck someone into your plans, meaning you force them to participate. The word suck comes from the Proto-Indo-European sug, from the sound your mouth makes when you suck on something.

Definitions of suck

1. verb

   draw into the mouth by creating a practical vacuum in the mouth
   “suck the poison from the place where the snake bit”

   “suck on a straw”

   synonyms:

   breastfeed, give suck, lactate, nurse, suckle, wet-nurse

   give suck to

   type of:

   drink, imbibe

   take in liquids
2. verb

   draw something in by or as if by a vacuum
   “Mud was sucking at her feet”

   type of:

   draw, take out

   take liquid out of a container or well
3. verb

   attract by using an inexorable force, inducement, etc.
   “The current boom in the economy sucked many workers in from abroad”

   synonyms: suck in

   type of:

   absorb, take in

   suck or take up or in
4. verb

   take in, also metaphorically
   synonyms: absorb, draw, imbibe, soak up, sop up, suck up, take in, take up

   types:

   mop, mop up, wipe up

   to wash or wipe with or as if with a mop

   blot

   dry (ink) with blotting paper

   sponge up

   absorb as if with a sponge

   swab, swob

   wash with a swab or a mop

   sponge

   soak up with a sponge
5. verb

   provide sexual gratification through oral stimulation
   type of:

   excite, stimulate, stir

   stir feelings in
6. verb

   give suck to
   synonyms: breastfeed, give suck, lactate, nurse, suckle, wet-nurse

   type of:

   feed, give

   give food to
7. verb

   be inadequate or objectionable
   type of:

   be

   have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)
8. noun

   the act of sucking
   synonyms: sucking, suction

   type of:

   consumption, ingestion, intake, uptake

   the process of taking food into the body through the mouth (as by eating)