[f. SUCK v. + -ING2.]
1. That sucks milk from the breast; that is still being suckled, unweaned.
† Sucking fere [FERE sb.2, companion], a foster brother. (Cf. even-sucker, s.v. SUCKER sb. 1.)
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., I. 246. Æʓðer ʓe men ʓe ða sucendan cild.
c. 1205. Lay., 20973. Þa sukende children þeo adrenten inne wateren.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, vii. (Jacobus), 689. Hyre sowkand sowne þane cane scho ta.
1382. Wyclif, Acts xii. 1. Manaen, that was the sowkynge feere of Eroud tetrarke.
c. 1491. Chast. Goddes Chyld., 14. A louynge moder listeth to play with her souking childe.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 466. A sucking babe in the cradell, not fully halfe a yeare olde.
1611. Bible, Isa. xlix. 15. Can a woman forget her sucking child?
1743. Pol. Ballads (1860), II. 302. And ev’ry parish sucking-babe Again be nurs’d with Gin.
1845. G. Johnson, Mat. Med., in Encycl. Metrop., VII. 508/1. If infusion of senna be given to the nurse, the sucking infant becomes purged.
† b. absol. transl. L. lactens, etc.: Suckling. Obs.
c. 975. Rushw. Gosp., Matt. xxi. 16. Of muðe cildra & sukendra.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Deut. xxxii. 25. Cniht and mædenu, sucende mid ealdum men.
a. 1325. Prose Psalter, cxxx. 4. As þe souking is vp his moder.
1382. Wyclif, 1 Sam. xv. 3. Sle fro man vnto womman, and litil child, and soukynge.
2. Of an animal: That is still sucking its dam. See also SUCKING-PIG.
1382. Wyclif, 1 Sam. vii. 9. O sowkynge loomb.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. lxiii. (Bodl. MS.). Flesche of souking calues.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 463/2. Sokynge gryce, nefrendus.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VIII. x. 81. The sowkin wolff furth streking brest and vdyr.
1535. Coverdale, Ecclus. xlvi. 16. What tyme as he offred the suckynge lambes.
1557. Richmond Wills (Surtees), 94. Soulkynge calves.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., II. i. 29. Plucke the yong sucking Cubs from the she Beare.
1833. W. H. Maxwell, Field Bk., Introd. A sucking-mastiff.
b. Of a bird: That is still with its mother. Now chiefly in sucking dove, echoed from Shaks. (see quot. 1590); also attrib.
Cf. dial. sucking duck, gander, turkey, used fig. = simpleton.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., I. ii. 85. I will aggrauate my voyce so, that I will roare you as gently as any sucking Doue.
1634. Althorp MS., in Simpkinson, Washingtons (1860), App. p. xxii. For 5 dozen and 1 sucking chickinges at 2d. ob. the chick, 00 12 03ob.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xxiv. He never had so much [brains] as would make pap to a sucking gosling.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. I. iv. Some loud as the lion; some small as the sucking dove.
1846. Mrs. Gore, Eng. Char. (1852), 157. From the sucking-dove eloquence of Private Secretaryship, he suddenly thundered into a Boanerges!
1858. Trollope, Dr. Thorne, xxvi. No young sucking dove could have been more mild than that terrible enemy [etc.].
3. fig. a. Not come to maturity; not fully developed; budding.
1648. J. Beaumont, Psyche, XIII. lviii. Some petty sucking Knaves their best did try. Ibid., XIX. cxvii. From sucking sneaking Schisms, they boldly broke Into the monstrous amplitude of those Black Heresies [etc.].
1678. Dryden, All for Love, Pref., Ess. 1900, I. 193. My enemies are but sucking critics, who would fain be nibbling ere their teeth are come. Ibid. (1681), Span. Friar, III. i. This is no Father Dominic…; this is but a diminutive sucking Fryar.
1708. Brit. Apollo, No. 50. 3/2. You are as yet, but a sucking Young Lover.
1834. Marryat, P. Simple, iv. He looks like a sucking Nelson.
1853. ‘C. Bede,’ Verdant Green, II. ii. Told you he was a sucking Freshman, Giglamps!
1876. Nature, 13 Jan., 202/2. The book before us, however, is not the book we should recommend to a sucking geometer.
transf. 1854. Mrs. Gaskell, North & S., viii. Most of the manufacturers placed their sons in sucking situations at fourteen or fifteen years of age.
b. Infantile, childishly innocent.
1843. Lover, Handy Andy, x. 96. To see their simplicity—sucking simplicity, I call it.
4. That sucks down, under water, into a whirlpool, etc. † Sucking sand = QUICKSAND.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, I. iii. 42. The sowcand sweltht. Ibid., VII. vi. 45. Quhat proffitit me Sirtis, that soukand sand?
1670–1. Narborough, Jrnl., in Acc. Sev. Late Voy., I. (1694), 118. Sucking Rocks lie on the North-side of the Streights.
1818. Keats, Endym., III. 249. Where through some sucking pool I will be hurl’d With rapture to the other side of the world!
1853. R. S. Hawker, Prose Wks. (1893), 28. There’s a nine-knot breeze above, And a sucking tide below.
1910. B. Capes, Jemmy Abercraw, II. xviii. 259. It was like a nightmare race over sucking quicksands.
† 5. Tending to drain or exhaust; = SOAKING ppl. a. 1. Obs.
c. 1440. Pol. Rel. & L. Poems, 246. ‘Accidia’ ys a souking sore, he traveylyth me from day to day.
6. Special collocations: sucking carp, the carp-sucker, Ictiobus carpio; † sucking-paper, blotting-paper; † sucking stone, pumice.
1804. Shaw, Gen. Zool., V. I. 237. *Sucking Carp. Cyprinus Catastomus...: said to live chiefly by suction.
a. 1648. Digby, Closet Opened (1677), 227. Filter it through *sucking-paper.
1664. Comenius’ Janua Ling., 582, marg. A *sucking stone ful of little holes.
