c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) 2 Macc. ix. 29 Philip, his euen souker [L. collactaneus ejus].

c1440 Promptorium Parvulorum 463/1 Sokere, or he þat sokythe, sugens.

a1475 J. Russell Bk. Nurture (Harl. 4011) in Babees Bk. (2002) i. 145 Rabettes sowkers, þe furþer parte from þe hyndur, ye devide.

a1549 in Gentleman's Mag. (1813) May 427 Rabetts socars the dozen, xviij d.

1591 R. Percyvall Bibliotheca Hispanica Dict. at Mamanton o mamon A sucker.

1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 673 Although the fœcundity of Swine bee great, yet it is better to kil off two or three..for this multitude of suckers do quickly draw away all nourishment from the dam.

a1627 W. Rowley & T. Middleton Wit at Severall Weapons iii. i, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Kkkkkk3^v/2 Sir Greg. I promise you, not a house-Rabbit, Sir. O. K. No sucker on 'em all.

1701 C. Wooley Two Years Jrnl. N.-Y. 44 Their [sc. whales'] young Suckers come along with them their several courses.

1836 Uncle Philip's Conversat. Whale Fishery 253 I saw the whale with its sucker.

1878 R. Hunt & F. W. Rudler Ure's Dict. Arts (ed. 7) IV. Suppl. 380 Racks, or young rabbits about two months old..and suckers, or very young rabbits.

1883 Standard 11 June 6/3 The inquiry [for pigs] was restricted, at less money for suckers.

1902 T. F. Dale Riding & Polo Ponies iii. 45 Fillies should be taken off the moors as suckers.

1838 Patriot (Toronto) 29 May 1/2 It's true that pigs has their troubles like humans..constables catches 'em, dogs bites 'em, and pigs is sometimes as done-over suckers as men.

1857 San Francisco Call 5 Dec. in Thorton Amer. Gloss. You may think I'm a sucker.

1904 E. Robins Magn. North viii. 153 Goin' out to stir up a boom, and sell his claim to some sucker.

1927 A. Conan Doyle Case-bk. Sherlock Holmes 92 I'll see this sucker and fill him up with a bogus confession.

1941 A. Christie Evil under Sun viii. 146 Crazy about the woman, idealising her, suddenly finding out he'd been played for a sucker.

1957 Ess. in Crit. 7 47 I confess to being a sucker myself, if not for Malory, for Welsh legend.

1960 P. Goodman Growing up Absurd iii. 65 Our present poor are absolute sheep and suckers for the popular culture which they cannot afford, the movies, sharp clothes, and up to Cadillacs.

1973 L. Meynell Thirteen Trumpeters iv. 57 He got..a tiny percentage out of the total takings of the Casino. The more suckers who turned up the more each sucker spent the better pleased he was.

1979 Financial Rev. Survey (Sydney) 22 Oct. 11/2 Look at the advertising man himself. He's the biggest sucker in town. From rotary engines to studded blue jeans—you'll find 'em at the agency.

1981 M. Gee Dying, in Other Words 58 Elsie laughed when she told about Pelham and called her a sucker, and said that she ought to ask him for money, men often liked giving you money, it was part of the game.

1577–82 N. Breton Toys of Idle Head in Wks. (1879) I. 54/1 If suckers draw the sappe from bowes on hie, Perhaps in tyme the top of tree may die.

1591 R. Percyvall Bibliotheca Hispanica Dict. at Pimpollo A succor that groweth out of the bodies of trees, Stolo.

1615 W. Lawson Country Housewifes Garden (1626) 4 The roots of Apples and Peares..will put foorth suckers, which are a great hinderance.

c1660 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1641 (1955) II. 58 Out of whose stem, neere the roote, issue 5 upright & exceeding tall suckers or boles.

1669 J. Worlidge Systema Agriculturæ (1681) 129 Filberds are generally drawn as Suckers from the old Trees.

1682 G. Rose Perfect School Instr. Officers of Mouth 154 Take the Succors or Stalks of these Roman Lettice, and peel of the leaves and skins.

1694 Philos. Trans. 1693 (Royal Soc.) 17 982 When the top-bud [of the tobacco plant] is gone, it puts forth no more Leaves, but Side-branches, which they call Suckers.

1707 J. Mortimer Whole Art Husbandry (1721) II. 188 Spanish Broom is not much unlike the yellow Jessamine... It..is increased by Seeds or Suckers.

1766 Compl. Farmer at Quince-tree Suckers are the worst to raise them from; and cuttings are generally preferred to layers.

1773 J. Hawkesworth Acct. Voy. Southern Hemisphere III. iii. xiii. 734 The Pine apple..are however so luxuriant in their growth that most of them have two or three crowns, and a great number of suckers from the bottom of the fruit.

1807 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 17 374 Stem upright,..bare at base, at top leafy, branched, never throwing out succours.

1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 688 Clear the strawberries from suckers.

1842 J. C. Loudon Suburban Horticulturist 239 Plants are propagated either by seed, or by division: the latter mode including cuttings, joints, leaves, layers, suckers, slips, budding, grafting, and inarching.

1870 J. D. Hooker Student's Flora Brit. Islands 107 The Dwarf Cherry forms a bush with copious suckers.

1877 A. Morris Tobacco 45 The tobacco plant shoots up its stalk at top, sending out some four or five main suckers branchwise.

1591 R. Greene Second Pt. Conny-catching Ep. Ded. f. 4^v If the honorable and worshipfull of this land looke into their liues, and cut off such vpstarting suckars that consume the sap from the roote of the Tree.

1642 T. Fuller Holy State iii. v. 163 If thou payest nothing, they will count thee a sucker, no branch.

1688 J. Norris Theory & Regulation Love ii. iii. 113 This [sc. self-love] is the great Sucker of Society, and that which robbs the Body Politick of its due nourishment.

1780 R. B. Sheridan School for Scandal ii. iii. 26 For my part, I hate to see prudence clinging to the green suckers of youth.

1792 in Ld. Auckland's Corr. (1861) II. 428 I have no olive-branches round my table, and I stand like a blasted pollard without a sucker to survive me.

1818 H. Hallam View Europe Middle Ages II. ix. 472 A manufacturing district..sends out, as it were, suckers into all its neighbourhood.

1827 J. F. Cooper Prairie III. v. 160 I am a sycamore, that once covered many with my shadow... But a single succour is springing from my roots.

1858 A. P. Stanley Life of Dr. Arnold I. v. 215 A living sucker from the mother country.

1876 ‘G. Eliot’ Daniel Deronda II. iv. xxx. 268 This woman whose life he had allowed to send such deep suckers into his had a terrible power of annoyance in her.

1772 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 63 155 The fourth and last fish brought from Hudson's Bay is there called a Sucker, because it lives by suction.

1806 Z. M. Pike Acct. Exped. Sources Mississippi (1810) 60 They..raise plenty of Irish potatoes, catch pike, suckers, pickerel, and white fish in abundance.

1848 J. R. Bartlett Dict. Americanisms Sucker, a very common fish of the genus labeo, and of which there are many varieties, including the Chub, Mullet, Barbel, Horned Dace, etc.

1888 G. B. Goode Amer. Fishes 16 The destructive inroads of sturgeon, cat-fish and suckers upon the spawning beds in Lake Pepin.

1833 C. F. Hoffman Let. 26 Dec. in Winter in West (1835) I. 210 There was a long-haired ‘hooshier’ from Indiana, a couple of smart-looking ‘suckers’ from the southern part of Illinois, a keen-eyed leather-belted ‘badger’ from the mines of Ouisconsin. [note, So called after the fish of that name, from his going up the river to the mines, and returning at the season when the sucker makes its migrations].

1838 T. C. Haliburton Clockmaker (1839) 2nd Ser. xix. 258 There's the hoosiers of Indiana, the suckers of Illinoy, the pukes of Missuri [etc.].

1856 R. W. Emerson Eng. Traits iv. 54 I found abundant points of resemblance between the Germans of the Hercynian forest, and our Hoosiers, Suckers, and Badgers of the American woods.

1615 H. Crooke Μικροκοσμογραϕια 145 The other veine, of his office is called the emulgent or sucker.

1605 F. Bacon Of Aduancem. Learning ii. sig. Ii2 The entrie of doubts are as so many suckers or sponges, to drawe vse of knowledge. View more context for this quotation

1686 R. Plot Nat. Hist. Staffs. iii. 148 The chain is made with leather suckers upon it at little distances, which bring up water, and discharge themselves into a trough.

1755 Churchwardens' Accts. Wolsingham (MS) Sucker in y^e Vestery Chimnay, 3s. od.

1838 T. Thomson Chem. Org. Bodies 602 All the oil passed over with the water... It was separated from the water by means of a sucker.

1848 J. R. Bartlett Dict. Americanisms Sucker, a tube used for sucking sherry-cobblers. They are made of silver, glass, straw, or sticks of maccaroni.

1876 F. K. Robinson Gloss. Words Whitby Sooker, in old dwellings, a brick hood or canopy..projecting over the fire for focalizing the air current.

1797 Monthly Mag. 3 303 When the bellows is opened, one of its sides becomes filled with ordinary air, by means of a sucker placed next to the moving leaf.

1833 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Cottage Archit. §1975 In long conduit pipes, air-holes..terminating in inverted valves or suckers, should be made at convenient distances.

1880 C. A. Edwards Organs ii. i. 42 In the middle board are placed suckers, i.e., holes provided with leather valves on the top.

1849 J. H. Balfour Man. Bot. §122 In parasites..such as Dodder.., roots are sometimes produced in the form of suckers, which enter into the cellular tissue of the plant preyed upon.

1856 J. S. Henslow Dict. Bot. Sucker,..a tubercular process..on the stems of certain flowering parasites.

1931 Daily Express 2 Sept. 1/5 The United States Golf Association passed a special rule permitting ‘suckers’—that is, balls embedded in the mud—to be lifted and cleaned without penalty.

1963 Times 9 Jan. 4/3 There do not seem to have been any ‘suckers’, although some of Ray's towering drives were repeatedly expected to produce them.