swallow

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To make food or drink pass from your mouth down into your stomach.

   My throat hurt so much that it was hard to swallow even water.

2. 2
   noun

   An act of swallowing, or the amount you swallow at one time.

   He finished the drink in one swallow.

3. 3
   verb

   To believe something too easily, especially something untrue.

   Am I supposed to swallow that story?

4. 4
   verb

   To hold back a feeling and not show it.

   I swallowed my anger and kept quiet.

Multiword verbs with swallow

• swallow up Phrasal verb A2

  to surround or cover something completely so that it disappears from view

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Both swallow, the bird’s name, and swallow, the verb for passing food or drink down the throat, are Old English words, but they have unrelated origins. Their identical modern spelling therefore joins two historically distinct words.

From Middle English swolwen, from Old English swelgan, from Proto-West Germanic *swelgan, from Proto-Germanic *swelganą (“to swallow, revel, devour”), from Proto-Indo-European *swelk- (“to gulp”). Cognate with Dutch zwelgen (“to revel, carouse, guzzle”), German schwelgen (“to delight, indulge”), Swedish svälja (“to swallow, gulp”), Icelandic svelgja (“to swallow”), Old English swillan, swilian (“to swill, wash out, gargle”). See also swill. The noun is from Middle English swolow, swolwe, from Old English swelh, swelg (“gulf, chasm”) and ġeswelge (“gulf, chasm, abyss, whirlpool”), both from Pro…

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary