Suck it up!

Wise Words: suck

Despite several attempts using the latest technology, BP can’t find a way to suck up the oil plume that’s heading towards the Florida Keys. The company has tried low-tech equipment too, including hair. But the plume of oil is hundreds of kilometres long. How much hair will be needed?

Can BP suck it up?

The media are focusing on how BP is making every effort to suck up the oil. "Suck up" is one of those phrasal verbs that can have different meanings.

1. remove by suction

The media are using it in a literal sense here:

BP: Mile-long tube sucks up some oil away from Gulf well
Eagle Tribune

BP claims its tube is working really well at sucking up oil
Inhabitat

2. behave in an obedient and servile way towards someone in order to gain an advantage

The whole phrase is "suck up to sb.", and it can also be used in a more informal way. As you can see from the following example sentence, the meaning is negative.

Was President Obama sucking up to oil companies when he agreed to allow more offshore drilling at the beginning of this year?

3. deal with a problem, even when it means that you have to suffer, without complaining

The whole phrase is "suck it up". What about this sentence?

As far as I’m concerned, the fines for BP can never be high enough. I say, “Suck it up, BP!"

Here, I’m saying that BP should feel hardship, both mentally and physically (and financially), but they should also deal with this problem. If someone complains that they are having a hard time and you think they should just stop complaining and deal with the problem, you can tell them (unkindly) to “suck it up”. It's not clear where that expression comes from; possibly the military. It’s not the meaning you would normally need in a business situation, but I’ve said it to my kids more than once!

Finally, if you have kids who watch American TV series in English, you may hear them using the verb, without the “up”. Used intransitively, “suck” sums up how most teenagers feel about just about everything that’s going on. When they see images from the oil disaster, the comment you might get from them is:

Wow, that really sucks!

This verb is one that some people find vulgar, as it may have its origins in fellatio. That said, most people don’t realize this — especially the younger generation. (Although when they do, they are likely to start using it even more.) "Suck" is a word you can use to describe something that is really awful, inadequate, disgusting, depressing, objectionable or of really poor quality.

So, with one verb we can sum up the situation in the Gulf of Mexico: it sucks.