English → Latin
“suck” in Latin
sūgōto suck; to take in; to exhaustbibōto drinkexhauriōto draw out, empty by drawing, deplete; to exhaust, drain off, take out, use up, deplete, empty out, make empty; to takeexināniōto empty (the contents of); to drain or pour out; to strip; to despoilexpīlōto plunder, despoil, pillageimbibōto drink in, imbibe; to assimilate; to conceive (an idea)colorcolor (US), colour (UK); shade, hue, tint; pigment; complexionexsūgōto suck outūbera teat, pap, dug, udder, a lactating breast; richness, fruitfulnesspraebeōto proffer, offer; to provide, grant, furnish, supply, service; to show, display
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
suck v.
Transitively, sugere (the proper word): bibere (suck up, drink in; e.g., spongia aquam bibit). To suck in, imbibere, bibere (e.g., colorem): to suck in false notions with one’s mother’s milk, errores cum lacte nutricis sugere: a sucking-pump, *antlia aquas sugens, bibens: to suck out, exsugere.
Figuratively, To exhaust, enfeeble, exhaurire; exinanire; expilare (to exhaust the strength of a country); defenerare; fenore trucidare (to drain with usury): to suck the life’s blood out of anyone, alicujus medullam perbibere; alicujus sanguinem or aliquem absorbere (comedy).
Intransitively, sugere: sugere mammam matris. A sucking (pig, etc.), lactens (with substantive; a suckling: subrumus only in the language of peasants): to let anything suck, ad ubera admittere aliquem (of animals); ad mammam matris admovere aliquem (of a person making a young animal suck: subrumare belongs to the language of peasants); mammam dare or praebere alicui (of a mother): to suck still, he still sucks his mother’s teats, adhuc sub mamma (or sub mammis, of several) haberi: a sucking-spoon or boat, *rostrum ad sugendum factum.
suck s.
by the verb, or by circumlocution with mamma or uber; e.g., to give suck, mammam dare or praebere; uber dare (Plin.); nutrire infantem admoto ubere (Phaedrus.).
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for suck?
- The usual Latin words for “suck” are sūgō, bibō, exhauriō; also exināniō, expīlō, imbibō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.