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Glite Dictionary
to suck and blow

to suck and blow

1 9.9
To try to do two opposite things at the same time
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : no se puede hacer dos cosas a la vez
  • You can't suck and blow at the same time if you want to play that musical instrument properly.

Examples

  • In the meeting, she attempted to suck and blow by agreeing with everyone without taking a clear stance.

  • I just, I I get it, it both sucks and blows and the transition to Wayne's World is complete.

  • During the debate, he tried to suck and blow by supporting both sides of the argument.

Synonyms

to have it both ways
vsto suck and blow
  • Informal
27 7.2

To try to get the good parts of two opposite choices at the same time

is the effort to do two opposite things at the same time
to work at cross-purposes
vsto suck and blow
  • Informal
1 6.7

Act with different goals so people cannot work well together

is trying to do two opposite things at once rather than having mixed objectives

How Contradictory

to suck and blow
  • Informal
1 9.9

Surface Forms

suck and blow infinitive
sucking and blowing present participle
sucks and blows third person singular
sucked and blew past
sucked and blown past participle

Morphology

suck + and + blow

The phrase literally lists two opposite actions ('suck' and 'blow'), so a learner who knows those words and 'and' can infer it refers to attempting to do two contradictory things at once. This compositional, contrastive logic is transparent and cross-linguistically accessible, making the idiomatic sense predictable for a B1 learner.

Etymology

The verb suck and blow comes from the simple image of trying to suck in and blow out with your mouth at the same time, which you can't do. So the phrase means 'to try to do two opposite things at once', for example trying to please both sides of an argument.