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swallow
1[ swol-oh ]
verb (used with object)
- to take into the stomach by drawing through the throat and esophagus with a voluntary muscular action, as food, drink, or other substances.
Synonyms: quaff, imbibe, drink, down, devour, gulp, ingest, eat
- to take in so as to envelop; withdraw from sight; assimilate or absorb:
He was swallowed by the crowd.
Antonyms: discredit, disbelieve
- to accept without opposition; put up with:
to swallow an insult.
- to accept for lack of an alternative:
Consumers will have to swallow new price hikes.
- to suppress (emotion, a laugh, a sob, etc.) as if by drawing it down one's throat.
Synonyms: suppress, submerge, strangle, stifle, smother, repress, pocket, choke (back), hold in
- to take back; retract:
to swallow one's words.
- to enunciate poorly; mutter:
He swallowed his words.
verb (used without object)
- to perform the act of swallowing.
noun
swallow
2[ swol-oh ]
noun
- any of numerous small, long-winged passerine birds of the family Hirundinidae, noted for their swift, graceful flight and for the extent and regularity of their migrations. Compare bank swallow ( def ), barn swallow ( def ), martin ( def ).
- any of several unrelated, swallowlike birds, as the chimney swift.
swallow
1/ ˈswɒləʊ /
noun
- any passerine songbird of the family Hirundinidae, esp Hirundo rustica ( common or barn swallow ), having long pointed wings, a forked tail, short legs, and a rapid flight hirundine
- See fairy swallow
swallow
2/ ˈswɒləʊ /
verb
- to pass (food, drink, etc) through the mouth to the stomach by means of the muscular action of the oesophagus
- often foll by up to engulf or destroy as if by ingestion
Nazi Germany swallowed up several small countries
- informal.to believe gullibly
he will never swallow such an excuse
- to refrain from uttering or manifesting
to swallow one's disappointment
- to endure without retaliation
- to enunciate (words, etc) indistinctly; mutter
- often foll by down to eat or drink reluctantly
- intr to perform or simulate the act of swallowing, as in gulping
- swallow one's wordsto retract a statement, argument, etc, often in humiliating circumstances
Derived Forms
- ˈswallow-ˌlike, adjective
- ˈswallower, noun
- ˈswallowable, adjective
Other Words From
- swallow·a·ble adjective
- swallow·er noun
- un·swallow·a·ble adjective
- un·swallowed adjective
Word History and Origins
Origin of swallow1
Origin of swallow2
Word History and Origins
Origin of swallow1
Origin of swallow2
Idioms and Phrases
- bitter pill to swallow
Example Sentences
For Randy, a 50-year-old ex-Mormon gay man, this cure was a particularly bitter pill to swallow.
For the Times, which had won four Pulitzer Prizes in 2013, the Snowden slip-up was a bitter pill to swallow.
Even more difficult to swallow: Perry likes to put his name in front of a lot of his projects.
It's a hard pill to swallow not because the show isn't good.
Jordan is in an even more delicate position, and a country that ISIS would dearly like to swallow.
Hunger had to be satisfied, however, and I had to swallow my pride and my five-pennyworth.
In smoking, they swallow the fumes of the tobacco which causes intoxication for a time.
The birds that build them swallow a certain kind of glutinous weed growing on the coral rocks.
Here was something for the "babes and sucklings" of the craft of violin making to swallow.
I doa'nt swallow that story o' her'n. Depend upon it, man, it be a big lie fro' beginning to end.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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