suck

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To pull liquid or air into your mouth using your lips and breath.

   She sucked the juice through a straw.

2. 2
   verb

   To pull something in as if by a vacuum.

   The mud was sucking at my feet.

3. 3
   verb

   To be very bad or unpleasant.

   This weather really sucks.

4. 4
   noun

   An act of pulling something into the mouth by inhaling.

   He took a quick suck on his straw.

Multiword verbs with suck

• suck up Phrasal verb B2

  to draw liquid or another substance inward by suction

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Suck comes from Old English sūcan, from an Indo-European root imitating the sound. Suckle was probably formed from the slightly earlier suckling, itself from suck. Suction appeared in the early 17th century from the related Latin sugere “to 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.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary