[ad. L. suctio, -ōnem, n. of action f. suct-, sūgĕre to SUCK. Cf. F. succion (OF. suction).]
1. The action of sucking with the tongue and lips (or analogous organs). Also, an instance of this.
Applied to a method of extracting soft cataract (and the instruments used) by sucking the liquid from the lens through a tube (cf. suction tube in 4 b).
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 191. Sounds … may be made, as well by Suction, as by Emission of the Breath: as in Whistling, or Breathing.
1749. Hartley, Observ. Man, I. ii. § 2. 169. The Motions dependent on the Sensations of the Tongue…: Suction, Mastication [etc.].
1800. Med. Jrnl., III. 376. The autbor asserts, that … all the parts [in insects] derive their aliment from simple suction.
1840. L. Hunt, Seer, I. x. 25/1. His [sc. a fly’s] suctions of sugar.
1841. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd., 194. The internal digestive apparatus [of the leech] is evidently adapted … to form a capacious reservoir for the reception of fluids taken in by suction.
1862. Calverley, Verses & Transl. (ed. 2), 2. When I … sent those streaky lollipops home for your fairy suction.
1868. E. Edwards, Ralegh, I. xxv. 615. He was unable to take sustenance, except by suction.
1869. Lawson, Dis. Eye (1874), 130. Extraction of Soft Cataract by Suction…. Two, three, or four days having elapsed, the second stage or suction part of the operation may be performed.
b. Imbibing strong drink, drinking. slang.
1817. Scott, Lett. to Morritt, 11 Aug., in Lockhart. A man … cannot easily spend much money in liquor, since he must walk three or four miles to the place of suction and back again.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xxiii. Wery good power o’ suction, Sammy.
1913. Daily Mail, 25 April, 5/1. ‘What was this debt for?’ asked Judge Snagge. ‘Suction, my lord,’ was the reply.
† c. transf. The craving of appetite. Obs.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 169. Least the parts shoulde pine away when they are … hunger-starued, nature hath framed one part of exquisite and perfect sense, which alone fore-apprehending the suction and so the want of the rest [etc.].
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 365. A continual and unsatiable desire of eating caused, by a vehement sense of suction in the mouth of the ventricle.
d. fig.
1851. Hawthorne, Ho. Sev. Gables, xvii. They had been drawn into the great current of human life, and were swept away with it, as by the suction of fate itself.
1903. Westm. Gaz., 24 Oct., 8/1. If we had joined the movement we should have been drawn into it through suction.
2. The production of a more or less complete vacuum with the result that external atmospheric pressure forces fluid into the vacant space or causes the adhesion of surfaces.
1658. R. White, trans. Digby’s Powd. Symp. (1660), 53. One may remark within the … œconomy of nature, sundry sorts of attractions: as that of suction.
1669. W. Simpson, Hydrol. Chym., 129. The pressure would not be so much … unless at the time of the suction of the air.
1674. Boyle, Excell. Theol., II. v. 212. Suction and the ascension of water in pumps.
1702. Savery, Miner’s Friend, 20. The external Pressure of the Atmosphere or what is vulgarly called Suction.
1793. W. & S. Jones, Catal. Optical, etc. Instr., 6. A model of a water pump, exemplifying the nature of pumps, and proving the absurdity of what is called suction.
1878. Meredith, Teeth, 222. That adaptation of the plate to the mucous membrane which is necessary to keep out particles of food, or to make perfect suction.
1899. Baring-Gould, Bk. West, II. vi. 86. The suction had been so great as to tear the leather gaiters I wore off my legs.
3. Short for suction-pipe.
1886. J. Barrowman, Sc. Mining Terms, 65. Suction, or Suction pipe, the tail pipe of a pump; that part of a pump where the water enters.
1889. Welch, Text Bk. Naval Archit., xi. 124. Its length is sufficient to enable it to be screwed at its other end to any of the suctions.
4. attrib. and Comb. a. Simple attrib.
1847–9. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., IV. I. 145/1. Air entering veins lying within the suction-influence of the chest.
1855. Dunglison, Med. Lex., Suction power, the force presumed to be exerted on the blood in the veins by the active dilatation of the heart.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 250. The alternate compressive action of the abdominal wall and suction action of the thorax.
b. Special comb.: suction box, chamber, a chamber in a pump into which the liquid is conveyed by the suction-pipe; suction fan, (a) a fan used to increase or diminish the draught in a furnace; (b) a fan for withdrawing chaff and dirt from grain, or steam and hot air from meal, as it comes from the burrs (Knight, 1884); suction pipe, (a) the pipe leading from the bottom of a pump barrel to the reservoir from which fluid is to be drawn; (b) a pipe for the extraction of dust from tow; suction-plate, (a) a dental plate kept in position by atmospheric pressure; (b) (see quot. 1889); suction primer (see quots.); suction pump, a pump of the type in which the barrel is placed above the level of the reservoir, and is connected therewith by a suction pipe; suction stop, any of the ‘clicks’ peculiar to certain South African languages; suction tube, (a) = suction-pipe (a); (b) a tube used in an operation for cataract; suction valve, (a) the valve at the bottom of the cylinder of a suction pump, below the piston; (b) the valve in a steam engine through which the water is drawn from the hot-well into the feed-pump (Knight, 1875). Also in various names of machines that perform their operations by suction or the creation of a vacuum; e.g., suction cleaner, gas engine, hose.
1889. Welch, Text Bk. Naval Archit., xi. 124. A *suction-box or valve chest … is fitted beneath the pump.
1864. Webster, *Suction-chamber, the chamber of a pump into which the suction pipe delivers.
1904. Westm. Gaz., 14 Sept. 9/3. Their fight with *suction cleaners alone had cost them £3,750.
1874. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 400. A *suction-fan wherewith to increase or diminish the draught, and to cause the effectual passage of the gases and fumes through even a compact mass of ore.
1906. Westm. Gaz., 2 Oct., 5/2. The householder must supply himself with a small *suction gas-engine.
1888. Daily News, 2 July, 5/5. The Grinder and Manly tugs got to work with their *suction hose.
1793. Trans. Soc. Arts, V. 209. A proper length of *suction pipe.
1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 215. Arrangements … for cleaning the tow by a blowing-machine, with dust suction-pipes.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2442/2. *Suction-plate (Dental).
1889. Welch, Text Bk. Naval Archit., xi. 124. A deck- or suction-plate…, to the under side of which, at its centre, the tail pipe from the pump is attached.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2442/2. *Suction-primer, a small force-pump worked by hand and used in charging a main-pump. Ibid. (1884), Suppl., 871/1. Suction Primer, a device to charge a steam pump ready for starting.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 635. Two or three kinds, used for domestic purposes, of which the *suction and lifting pumps are the chief.
1883. Science, I. 524/1. It has long been discussed whether the ventricle of the heart is not only a force-pump in systole, but also a suction-pump in diastole.
1887. H. Sweet, in Academy, 10 Dec., 394. The *suction-stops or ‘clicks’ of the South-African languages.
1863. Atkinson, trans. Ganot’s Physics (1866), 131. A *suction tube,… which dips into the reservoir from which water is to be raised.
1879. St. George’s Hosp. Rep., IX. 502. One, resulting from the prick of a thorn, in a man, aged 28, was extracted with the suction-tube.
1831. Lardner, Pneumatics, v. 294. Probably the most simple and the best contrivance [for an air pump] is one in which the *suction valve is altogether dispensed with.
Hence Suctional a. rare–1, having a power of suction (fig.); Suctionist nonce-wd., one who favors a theory of suction.
1707. Phil. Trans., XXV. 2415. Several Phænomena of which, being liable to be accounted for by the Suctionists, and Funicularians, to proceed from some (unintelligible) Internal Cause.
1872. Ruskin, Munera P., 32. The holder of wealth … may be regarded … as a money-chest with a slit in it, not only receptant but suctional.
