Also Sc. 5 suclar, 6 sowklar. [f. SUCKLE v. + -ER1.]
1. An unweaned mammal (rarely an infant); esp. a sucking calf. Also attrib.
1473. Rental Bk. Cupar-Angus (1879), I. 166. Twa cupyl of suclar kyddis.
1791. J. Learmont, Poems, 269. This day we hae our suckler lambs to spane.
c. 1800. Abdy, in A. Young, Agric. Essex (1813), II. 277. Sucklers of a week old, sold at Ongar market for 40s. each.
1832. L. Hunt, trans. Theocritus’ Hercules & Serp., 61. When they saw the little suckler, how He grasped the monsters.
1892. Wilts Co. Mirror, 5 Aug., 4/2. 30 Fat and Suckler Calves.
† b. as a term of endearment. Obs.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, lxxv. 53. My sowklar [Bann. MS. sucker] sweit as ony vnȝoun.
2. An animal that suckles its young; a mammal. Also, with epithet, an animal that suckles its young in a specified manner. rare.
1850. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XI. II. 577. They are moderately prolific and excellent sucklers.
1861. Zoologist, Ser. I. XIX. 7303. The sucklers and birds of the island have already been enumerated.
a. 1866. Whewell (Ogilvie).
3. One who rears young calves or lambs. local.
1750. W. Ellis, Mod. Husbandm., IV. I. 116 (E. D. S.).
1778. [W. Marshall], Minutes Agric., 29 Oct. 1775. Last night, the Suckler, in a great hurry, drove one of the cows out of the suckling-house into the yard.
1784. Robinson, Lett., in N. & Q., 3rd Ser. IV. 342. I sold the butcher a fat calf and the suckler a lean one.
4. pl. The flowering heads of clover. Also attrib. in sing. Cf. SUCKLING sb.2 1.
1725. Ramsay, Gentle Sheph., IV. ii. On the Suckler brae.
1853. G. Johnston, Nat. Hist. E. Bord., I. 54. The flowered heads are called by the common people sookies or sucklers.
1893–4. Northumbld. Gloss., II. 706. Sucklers, white clover.
5. = SUCKER sb. 4. dial. Cf. SUCKLING sb. 2.
1796. H. Hunter, trans. St.-Pierre’s Study Nat. (1799), II. 178. A very lofty tuft of oats … consisting of thirty-seven stalks,… without reckoning a multitude of other small sucklers.
1851. Sternberg, Dial. Northants., 109. Sucklers, slips of willow, &c., used for planting.
