How to Use sucker in a Sentence

sucker

noun
  • That kid is a mean little sucker.
  • He's just a con artist looking for another sucker.
  • What sort of a cinephile isn’t a sucker for movies about movies?
    — Kate Erbland, IndieWire, 28 Oct. 2025
  • That makes students who play by the rules feel like suckers.
    — Rose Horowitch, The Atlantic, 12 May 2026
  • The worst part though, is all the suckers kept coming up from the pear roots.
    — Steve Bender, Southern Living, 1 Apr. 2026
  • Clip away suckers or small sprouts that are growing from the base of the tree.
    — Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 8 Mar. 2026
  • Cephalopods’ soft bodies sprout arms and bloom with suckers at these same splits.
    — Jake Buehler, Quanta Magazine, 28 Aug. 2025
  • Then search for outlying suckers and prune them down to the ground.
    — Beth Botts, Chicago Tribune, 2 May 2026
  • Meynecke's footage showed just how adept the sucker fish are at riding on the whales.
    — Michael Nied, PEOPLE, 10 Nov. 2025
  • Pinch small suckers off with your fingers, but use your pruners for larger ones.
    — Patricia S York, Southern Living, 22 June 2026
  • The little suckers will ingest this and die.
    — Steve Bender, Southern Living, 10 Sep. 2025
  • The team in green silenced a sea of red and white with a sucker-punch of a goal from a set-play.
    — Joseph O'Sullivan, Forbes.com, 18 Sep. 2025
  • Black horse-braid knots ran up and down her arms like the suckers of a cephalopod, or spikes of armor.
    — Leah Dolan, CNN, 9 Feb. 2024
  • Eliminate any suckers, which are shoots growing from the base of the tree.
    — Sj McShane, Martha Stewart, 12 Mar. 2026
  • The problem is that the rootstock can send up suckers from the roots below the graft union.
    — Paul Cappiello, Louisville Courier Journal, 27 Feb. 2026
  • On the bike route, Kocher was a sucker for extra miles and extra hours.
    — Rachel Royster, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 23 Dec. 2025
  • Hindsight, alas, is for suckers and columnists.
    — Sean Keeler, Denver Post, 28 Feb. 2026
  • Pando’s problem is that it’s comprised of too many old suckers.
    — Paighten Harkins, The Salt Lake Tribune, 14 Aug. 2023
  • Look for dead wood, suckers, and crowded branches to improve growth and shape the shrub.
    — Steve Bender, Southern Living, 27 May 2026
  • As for the suckers growing on what's left, the Bradford's roots still in the ground.
    — Steve Bender, Southern Living, 1 Apr. 2026
  • Each sucker has about two cirri — which are fleshy, nipple-like structures.
    — Moira Ritter, Miami Herald, 22 Feb. 2024
  • In fruit trees, neither suckers nor water sprouts produce fruit.
    — Megan Hughes, Better Homes & Gardens, 5 Aug. 2025
  • Yeah, that totally tastes like a green apple sucker.
    — Jess Fleming, Twin Cities, 22 Aug. 2025
  • Only the suckers are spending big money now—best to wait to see what works for others.
    — Sheryl Estrada, Fortune, 21 Nov. 2023
  • The piano pop legend is a sucker for things that go bling, but his latest pieces are not for the faint of heart.
    — Gil Kaufman, Billboard, 16 Sep. 2025
  • But none of this quite answers your question of how to not be a sucker in a sucker’s market.
    — Clio Chang, Curbed, 26 Nov. 2025
  • The same applies to suckers that a young tree may develop; they can be removed at any time.
    — Lauren Landers, Better Homes & Gardens, 27 Oct. 2025
  • Keep the plant in check by pruning suckers that develop between where a leaf meets the main stem.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 29 May 2026
  • Keep the plant in check by pruning suckers that develop between where a leaf meets the main stem.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 16 June 2026
  • Lilac shrubs also spread through suckers — new stems that sprout from the root system and can crowd out other plants.
    — Beth Botts, Chicago Tribune, 2 May 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sucker.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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