1887. Francis, Saddle and Mocassin. Such men always take it for granted that an Englishman is a sucker.
1887. New York Semi-Weekly Tribune, 11 Jan. The . . . suckers . . . despite . . . oft-repeated warnings, swallowed the hook so clumsily baited.
1888. Cincinnatti Enquirer. The goldasted . . . mugwump has made suckers of us again with his cracks about coming into the league.
1896. Lillard, Poker Stories, 54. A sucker had no more chance against those fellows than a snowball has in a red-hot oven. Every deck was marked.
1900. Savage, Brought to Bay, v. Anyone who will get those French and English suckers to invest good money out here, ought to live.
Verb. (common).—1. To extract ideas or money; to pump (q.v.): e.g. to suck one's brains = to find out all one knows (Grose). See sucker, subs. 1.
2. (American University).—To use a crib (q.v.). Hence sucker = a pony (q.v.).
To teach one's grandma
(or grannie) to suck eggs,
verb. phr. (common).—To instruct
an expert; to talk old to
one's elders (Ray, Lex. Bal.).
See Grandmother and add the
following quotation and analogous
phrases:—To teach one's
grannie to grope her ducks, to
sup sour milk, to sard or to spin;
to teach one's father to get
children. Also Il ne faut pas
apprendre aux poissons à nager =
You must not teach fish to
swim.
1897. Marshall, Pomes, 23. Some buds of youthful purity . . . Were engaged to lecture grandmas on the Art of Sucking Eggs.
See Monkey and Sugar-*stick.
Sucker, subs. (common).—1. A
parasite; a sponger (q.v.).
Also bumsucker (q.v.). Spec.
(American political) = a blackmailer.
Also Suck, verb = to
sponge upon: whence to suck
dry = to exhaust: cf. proverbial
saying, 'Children suck the
mother when young, and the
father when old.'
1856. Dow, Sermons, iii. Of the scaly tribe, I may mention those suckers belonging to the body loaferish, that never rise to the surface of respectability, whose sole study appears to be to see how much they can get without the least physical exertion.
2. (trade).—A sucking pig. Also (old) = any youngling: e.g. a rabbit-sucker = a young rabbit, etc.
1591. Lyly, Endymion, v. 2. I prefer an olde cony before a rabbet-sucker, and an ancient henne before a young chicken peeper.
1598. Shakspeare, 1 Hen. IV., ii. 4. If thou dost it half so gravely, so majestically, both in word and matter, hang me up by the heels for a rabbit-sucker.
1599. Porter, Two Angry Women of Abingdon [Steevens]. Close as a rabbit-sucker from an old coney.
1882. Standard, 3 Sep. For suckers the demand was not very brisk.
3. (American).—A native of Illinois (which = the Sucker state: see State).
1848. Durivage, Stray Subjects, 79. There is a swarm of suckers, hoosiers, buckeyes, corncrackers and wolverines eternally on the qui vive in those parts.
1854. N. Y. Tribune, 19 Oct. A band of music was sent thirty miles to wake up the sleepy suckers, and draw them, by the magic of their music, to the Douglas gathering at Quincy, Illinois.
4 (venery).—The penis: see Prick. Also suck-and-swallow = the female privity.
