"suction about"

[Garson O'Toole]

George Thompson wrote
>     [coroner's report on John Dowlan, 33, "a poor loafer" who] has a wife
> and child living in Grand street and a mother in Mott street.  For several
> years past however, he has seldom visited his family, preferring rather to
> live by suction about and to sleep in the markets doing errands and small
> jobs, thereby earning the scanty means whereby to indulge in his favorite
> vice -- inebriety.  ***
>     Morning Courier & N-Y Enquirer, July 16, 1840, p. 2, col. 5 *

The phrase "live by suction" may mean to subsist on a diet without
solid foods. In the time period the phrase was typically applied to
insect and bird behavior, but it was sometimes used to refer to human
behavior.

Cite: 1871 July 13, Melbourne Punch, Joe Bagstock's Views, Page 16,
Column 2, Australia. (Google Books full view)

A literary club I once belonged to found out this sort of thing, and
the members, not being observed to eat, were sneered at by an
influential journal as being "supposed to live by suction." This was
felt by some as very cutting; but I am not ashamed to say that I once
lived for a considerable period altogether by suction.

http://books.google.com/books?id=ypNGAQAAIAAJ&q=suction#v=snippet&


Cite: 1865 May 20, Notes and Queries, 3rd S. VII., Page 405.
Wellington Street, Strand, London. (Google Books full view)

Indeed, the idea of sucking as connected with the long-billed snipe,
is still vernacular amongst us in country places; and if a patient is
unable to take solid food, one may hear it said, "Why, you are like a
snipe; you live by suction!"

http://books.google.com/books?id=smkJAAAAQAAJ&q="live+by+suction"#v=snippet&


OED has this sentence as an example under live (verb):
1842    W. T. Brande Dict. Sci., Lit. & Art 926/1   The name of a
tribe of beetles, including those which live by suction of the tender
parts of vegetables.

Garson

George Thompson wrote
>     [coroner's report on John Dowlan, 33, "a poor loafer" who] has a wife
> and child living in Grand street and a mother in Mott street.  For several
> years past however, he has seldom visited his family, preferring rather to
> live by suction about and to sleep in the markets doing errands and small
> jobs, thereby earning the scanty means whereby to indulge in his favorite
> vice -- inebriety.  ***
>     Morning Courier & N-Y Enquirer, July 16, 1840, p. 2, col. 5 *
> *I don't believe that this is my typo for "sucking" -- but perhaps.
>  Perhaps, also, the editor or typesetter absently connected "sucking" with
> "suction" as defied in the OED:*
> *b.* Imbibing strong drink, drinking. *slang.*
> 1817    Scott *Let.<http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:31797/view/Entry/193447?=
> rskey=3DmR7B7l&result=3D3&isAdvanced=3Dtrue>
> * 11 Aug. (1933) IV. 495   A man=E2=80=A5cannot easily spend much money in =
> liquor
> since he must walk three or four miles to the place of action and back
> again.
> [*a typo in the OED here: "the place of action?" or suction? *
> 1836    Dickens *Pickwick
> Papers<http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:31797/view/Entry/193447?rskey=3DmR7B7=
> l&result=3D3&isAdvanced=3Dtrue>
> * (1837) xxiii. 237   Wery good power o' suction, Sammy.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org