Search the Dictionary

Drawing milk from the mother or dam; hence, colloquially, young, inexperienced, as, a sucking infant; a sucking calf. I suppose you are a young barrister, sucking lawyer, or that sort of thing. Thackeray. Sucking bottle, a feeding bottle. See under Bottle. -- Sucking fish (Zoöl.), the remora. See Remora. Baird. -- Su…

A vicious habit of a horse, consisting in the swallowing of air; -- usually associated with crib-biting, or cribbing. See Cribbing, 4.

The act or process of absorbing or sucking in anything, or of being absorbed and made to disappear; as, the absorption of bodies in a whirlpool, the absorption of a smaller tribe into a larger.

a glass or phial, shaped like an inverted funnel, and with a very thin convex bottom. By sucking out a little air, the bottom springs into a concave form with a smart crack; and by breathing or blowing gently into the orifice, the bottom, with a like noise, springs into its former convex form.

es, in the small intestine. When present in large numbers they produce a severe anæmia by sucking the blood from the intestinal walls. Called also miner's anæmia, tunnel disease, brickmaker's anæmia, Egyptian chlorosis.

on of birds. (b) A similar bill in other animals, as the turtles. (c) The long projecting sucking mouth of some insects, and other invertebrates, as in the Hemiptera. (d) The upper or projecting part of the shell, near the hinge of a bivalve. (e) The prolongation of certain univalve shells containing the canal.…

A wingless, bloodsucking, hemipterous insect (Cimex Lectularius), sometimes infesting houses and especially beds. See Illustration in Appendix.

species, of the family Tabanidæ, noted for buzzing about animals, and tormenting them by sucking their blood; -- called also horsefly, and gadfly. They are among the largest of two- winged or dipterous insects. The name is also given to different species of botflies. [Written also breese and brize.]…

A member of a group of South American blood-sucking bats, of the genera Desmodus and Diphylla. See Vampire.

Having sucking disks on the toes, as the tree frogs.

To drain by emptying; to suck dry. Sucking and drawing the breast dischargeth the milk as fast as it can generated. Wiseman.

The act of sucking out.

öl.), the Vampyrus spectrum of South America, formerly erroneously supposed to have blood-sucking habits; -- called also vampire, and ghost vampire. The genuine blood-sucking bats belong to the genera Desmodus and Diphylla. See Vampire. -- False window. (Arch.) See False door, above. -- False wing. (Zoöl.) See Alula,…

pertaining to a forest; sylvan. Forest fly. (Zoöl.) (a) One of numerous species of blood-sucking flies, of the family Tabanidæ, which attack both men and beasts. See Horse fly. (b) A fly of the genus Hippobosca, esp. H. equina. See Horse tick. -- Forest glade, a grassy space in a forest. Thomson. -- Forest laws, law…

To treat with inattention or disregard; to slight; to neglect. Can a woman forget her sucking child . . . Yes, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Is. xlix. 15. To forget one's self. (a) To become unmindful of one's own personality; to be lost in thought. (b) To be entirely unselfish. (c) To be guilty of what…

A blood-sucking dipterous fly, of the genus Culex, undergoing a metamorphosis in water. The females have a proboscis armed with needlelike organs for penetrating the skin of animals. These are wanting in the males. In America they are generally called mosquitoes. See Mosquito.

That which swallows irretrievably; a whirlpool; a sucking eddy. Shak. A gulf of ruin, swallowing gold. Tennyson.

A division of Cheiroptera, including the bloodsucking bats. See Vampire.

An artificial division of insects, including all those with a sucking proboscis.

Provided with a haustellum, or sucking proboscis. -- n.