SUCKER

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does sucker mean? 

• SUCKER (noun)
  The noun SUCKER has 7 senses:

1. a person who is gullible and easy to take advantage of

2. a shoot arising from a plant's roots

3. a drinker who sucks (as at a nipple or through a straw)

4. flesh of any of numerous North American food fishes with toothless jaws

5. hard candy on a stick

6. an organ specialized for sucking nourishment or for adhering to objects by suction

7. mostly North American freshwater fishes with a thick-lipped mouth for feeding by suction; related to carps

  Familiarity information: SUCKER used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUCKER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who is gullible and easy to take advantage of

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

chump; fall guy; fool; gull; mark; mug; patsy; soft touch; sucker

Hypernyms ("sucker" is a kind of...):

dupe; victim (a person who is tricked or swindled)

Derivation:

suck (take in, also metaphorically)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A shoot arising from a plant's roots

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("sucker" is a kind of...):

shoot (a new branch)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A drinker who sucks (as at a nipple or through a straw)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("sucker" is a kind of...):

drinker (a person who drinks liquids)

Derivation:

suck (draw into the mouth by creating a practical vacuum in the mouth)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Flesh of any of numerous North American food fishes with toothless jaws

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("sucker" is a kind of...):

freshwater fish (flesh of fish from fresh water used as food)

Holonyms ("sucker" is a part of...):

sucker (mostly North American freshwater fishes with a thick-lipped mouth for feeding by suction; related to carps)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Hard candy on a stick

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Synonyms:

all-day sucker; lollipop; sucker

Hypernyms ("sucker" is a kind of...):

candy; confect (a rich sweet made of flavored sugar and often combined with fruit or nuts)

Sense 6

Meaning:

An organ specialized for sucking nourishment or for adhering to objects by suction

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("sucker" is a kind of...):

organ (a fully differentiated structural and functional unit in an animal that is specialized for some particular function)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sucker"):

cupule (a sucker on the feet of certain flies)

Derivation:

suck (give suck to)

Sense 7

Meaning:

Mostly North American freshwater fishes with a thick-lipped mouth for feeding by suction; related to carps

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("sucker" is a kind of...):

catostomid (a cypriniform fish of the family Catostomidae)

Meronyms (parts of "sucker"):

sucker (flesh of any of numerous North American food fishes with toothless jaws)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sucker"):

buffalo fish; buffalofish (any of several large suckers of the Mississippi valley)

hog molly; hog sucker; Hypentelium nigricans (widely distributed in warm clear shallow streams)

redhorse; redhorse sucker (North American sucker with reddish fins)

Holonyms ("sucker" is a member of...):

Catostomidae; family Catostomidae (suckers; closely related to the family Cyprinidae)

 Context examples 

A distinctive characteristic was that the suckers were in one, rather than two, series on each arm.

(Deep Discoverer Discovers a Very Deep, Ghostlike Octopod, NOAA)