suck

«suck» in Mova's school dictionary: to pull liquid or air into your mouth by tightening your… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (suck, sucks, sucked, sucking)

meaning for a pupil

1) To suck is to pull liquid or air into your mouth by tightening your lips and cheeks, as through a straw. tree →

2) To suck something, like a sweet or your thumb, is to keep it in your mouth and move your tongue and lips around it. tree →

3) To suck something in or up is to pull it with force, as a vacuum cleaner does. tree →

4) (Informal, a bit rude) Something «sucks» if it is bad or unpleasant. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science, a vacuum cleaner sucks up dust by making lower air pressure inside; in nature, mosquitoes suck blood and bees suck nectar; babies suck milk. In safety, strong water currents and drains can suck swimmers or hair in — keep away from pool drains and rip currents. Phrases: «suck through a straw», «suck your thumb», «suck up», «suck in», «sucked in» (tricked, Australian).

examples

• He sucked his drink through a straw. tree →
• The baby sucks her thumb when she's tired. tree →
• The vacuum cleaner sucked up the crumbs. tree →
• A mosquito sucks blood. tree →
• Bees suck nectar from flowers. tree →
• Don't suck on pencils; it's not clean. tree →
• Strong currents can suck swimmers out to sea. tree →
• Suck in your tummy for the photo. tree →
• But generally he sucks the blood of sleepers. tree →

note

Regular verb: sucked. The informal «it sucks» is slang and impolite in class; say «it's bad» or «that's a pity». Do not confuse «suck» with «sock». A straw works because sucking lowers the air pressure in your mouth and the air pushes the liquid up.

In the corpora

• Baby elephants stay close to mothers and aunts, who circle them when lions or hyenas come; babies suck their trunks for comfort.
• Walruses find clams on the dark seabed with hundreds of sensitive whiskers and suck them out of their shells.
• Look at a rose stem covered in tiny green aphids sucking sweet sap.
• Suck a slice of lemon and your whole face screws up.
• Never cut a bite, suck out venom or tie a tight cord around the limb.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «suck» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.