Sook

English from 14thC, Scottish from 19thC. From Old English sūcan ("to suck"). See suck.

Full definition of sook

Verb

1. Alternative spelling of suck
• 1832, Scottish proverbs, collected and arranged by A. Henderson, p 32:Ae hour′s cauld will sook out seven years′ heat.
• 1864, William Duncan Latto: Tammas Bodkin: Or, the Humours of a Scottish Tailor, p 378:Tibbie an' Andro bein' at that moment in the act o' whirlin' roond us were sooked into the vortex an' upset likewise, so that here were haill four o's sprawlin' i' the floor at ance.
• 1903, John Stevenson: Pat M′Carty, Farmer, of Antrim: His Rhymes, with a Setting, p 182:You pursed your mooth in shape like O,And sook′d the air in, might and main

Pronunciation

• IPA: /suːk, sÊŠk/

Probably from suck. Compare sukey (attested 1838), Sucky (1844), Suke (1850); sook from 1906.

Alternative forms

• suck
• suke

Noun

1. (Scotland, rare) Familiar name for a calf.
2. (US dialectal) Familiar name for a cow.
3. (Newfoundland) A cow or sheep.
4. (Australia, New Zealand) A poddy calf.
5. (US, Eastern Shore of Maryland) A female Chesapeake Bay blue crab.

Synonyms

• (poddy calf) sookie diminutive

Interjection

1. (Scotland) A call for calves.
• 1919, Strickland Gillilan, A Sample Case of Humor, %22sooks%22+poddy+OR+calf+-intitle:%22%22+-inauthor:%22%22&source=bl&ots=pKA-3B_5RX&sig=hawvxfDvl36tvfq5lRSzzsTJjRI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=g8dZUOu-I-mviQetu4GYCA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22sook%22|%22sooks%22%20poddy%20OR%20calf%20-intitle%3A%22%22%20-inauthor%3A%22%22&f=false page 47,Mother actually turned her back on that sheep and began dabbling her hand in the milk, saying, “Sook, calfy, sook, calfy!” seductively while the calf gave her the evil eue and walked backward.
• 1947, John Avery Lomax, Adventures of a Ballad Hunter, %22sooks%22+poddy+OR+calf+-intitle:%22%22+-inauthor:%22%22&dq=%22sook%22|%22sooks%22+poddy+OR+calf+-intitle:%22%22+-inauthor:%22%22&source=bl&ots=vjAZoGzgIi&sig=w-jEXU9PgJSgfOUJs11CR_vHWgY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=g8dZUOu-I-mviQetu4GYCA&redir_esc=y page 265,“You get outside the cowlot gate and start calling like this:
• “Sook calf, sook calf, sook calfie,Sook calf, sook calf!...”
2. (US dialectal) A call for cattle.
3. (Newfoundland) A call for cattle or sheep.

Synonyms

• (call) sook cow,sookie, sookow, sukow, suck, sucky, suck cow, sukey

Pronunciation

• IPA: /sÊŠk/

Probably from dialectal suck. Compare 19thC British slang sock ("overgrown baby"), British dialect suckerel ("suckling foal, unweaned child"), Canadian suck ("crybaby"), Canadian suck ("sycophant"). From 1933.

Noun

1. (Australia, Atlantic Canada, New Zealand, slang, derogatory) A crybaby, a complainer, a whinger; a shy or timid person, a wimp; a coward.Don′t be such a sook.
• 2006, Randa Abdel-Fattah, , %22sooks%22+australia+-intitle:%22%22+-inauthor:%22%22&source=bl&ots=99WHN5vH4s&sig=N5ZcMKems5yhl11JF1F-bQmlwxY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=2bhZUND_FM6TiAe7oYDAAQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22sook%22|%22sooks%22%20australia%20-intitle%3A%22%22%20-inauthor%3A%22%22&f=false unnumbered page,You must think I′m a sook, hey? Here I am complaining about my dad′s job and my curfew and your dad cheated on your mum. You put things into perspective for me.
• 2007, Jan Teagle Kapetas, Lubra Lips, Lubra Lips: Reflections on my Face, Maureen Perkins (editor), Visibly Different: Face, Place and Race in Australia, %22sooks%22+australia+-intitle:%22%22+-inauthor:%22%22&source=bl&ots=2e6XInQbYa&sig=1LAast0FEe_hmnNRoT_ikwU4FXQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=xrxZULjGM82ViQfSrIHYCg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22sook%22|%22sooks%22%20australia%20-intitle%3A%22%22%20-inauthor%3A%22%22&f=false page 31,‘What a sook! Look at her cry!’‘Yeah, look at the Abo cry!’
• 2008, Kieran Kelly, Aspiring: Mountain climbing is no cure for middle age, Pan MacMillan Australia, %22sooks%22+australia+-intitle:%22%22+-inauthor:%22%22&source=bl&ots=dhJhFYRn8N&sig=3NGTYutOhjiO-FaWNDzc2jLWPaA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=bcFZUJvoCpCtiQfc4oDYAQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22sook%22|%22sooks%22%20australia%20-intitle%3A%22%22%20-inauthor%3A%22%22&f=false page 233,Only sooks ask guides how far there is to go.
2. (Australia, Atlantic Canada, New Zealand, slang) A sulk or complaint; an act of sulking.I was so upset that I went home and had a sook about it.
• 2002, June Duncan Owen, Mixed Matches: Interracial Marriage in Australia, University of New South Wales Press, %22sooks%22+australia+-intitle:%22%22+-inauthor:%22%22&source=bl&ots=6xLTHKPcy2&sig=WVeCsgfVWCn_mc6H1lkilWBu9cs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=G51ZUK2GMo6SiAfn8oCYBQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22sook%22|%22sooks%22%20australia%20-intitle%3A%22%22%20-inauthor%3A%22%22&f=false page 87,‘Have a sook! Have a sook!’, they′d all yell. But that time I didn′t go outside to cry.

Related terms

• sookie, sookies, sooky, sooky baby Atlantic Canada

Synonyms

• (timid person) scaredy-cat, sissy

Derived terms

• sookey adjective
• sooky adjective
• sooky la-la

Pronunciation

• IPA: /suk/

From Arabic سُوق (sūq, ""). From 1926. See souq.

Noun

1. Alternative spelling of souq.
• 1964, Qantas Airways, Qantas Airways Australia, Volumes 30-31, %22sooks%22+australia+-intitle:%22%22+-inauthor:%22%22&dq=%22sook%22|%22sooks%22+australia+-intitle:%22%22+-inauthor:%22%22&source=bl&ots=FWQSKe-YHI&sig=lPw_hGJe1B5Eg_TRoi6tgZQUWRY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=G51ZUK2GMo6SiAfn8oCYBQ&redir_esc=y page 11,Against these riches you may buy a cup of the bitter, herbed black final coffee from a street vendor for ten piasters — about 1½d. — and step through an arch into the next sook devoted to cheap shoes and vegetables and as full of the turbaned poor as an Arabian Nights reality.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /suːk/

Origin unknown. From 1950.

Noun

1. The mature female blue crab, Callinectes sapidus.