suction
Other forms: suctions; suctioned; suctioning
Suction is a force created when there's a difference in air pressure. When you use a straw to drink a milkshake, suction forces the delicious ice cream to move up into your mouth.
Suction comes from the same Latin root as suck. Suction happens when a vacuum cleaner sucks up dirt or when someone sucks on a straw. At the dentist, suction is used to get rid of all the extra saliva while they work on your teeth. (Yuck.) Suction can also make things stick to hard surfaces. Some frogs can stick to windows with their little suction cup toes.
Definitions of suction
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the act of sucking
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a force over an area produced by a pressure difference
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type of:
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force per unit area, pressure, pressure level
the force applied to a unit area of surface; measured in pascals (SI unit) or in dynes (cgs unit)
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force per unit area, pressure, pressure level
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remove or draw away by the force of suction“the doctors had to suction the water from the patient's lungs”
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empty or clean (a body cavity) by the force of suction
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