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Swallow   /swˈɑloʊ/  /swˈɔloʊ/   Listen
verb
Swallow  v. t.  (past & past part. swallowed; pres. part. swallowing)  
1.
To take into the stomach; to receive through the gullet, or esophagus, into the stomach; as, to swallow food or drink. "As if I had swallowed snowballs for pills."
2.
To draw into an abyss or gulf; to ingulf; to absorb usually followed by up. "The earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses."
3.
To receive or embrace, as opinions or belief, without examination or scruple; to receive implicitly. "Though that story... be not so readily swallowed."
4.
To engross; to appropriate; usually with up. "Homer excels... in this, that he swallowed up the honor of those who succeeded him."
5.
To occupy; to take up; to employ. "The necessary provision of the life swallows the greatest part of their time."
6.
To seize and waste; to exhaust; to consume. "Corruption swallowed what the liberal hand Of bounty scattered."
7.
To retract; to recant; as, to swallow one's opinions. "Swallowed his vows whole."
8.
To put up with; to bear patiently or without retaliation; as, to swallow an affront or insult.
Synonyms: To absorb; imbibe; ingulf; engross; consume. See Absorb.


Swallow  v. i.  To perform the act of swallowing; as, his cold is so severe he is unable to swallow.


noun
Swallow  n.  
1.
(Zool.) Any one of numerous species of passerine birds of the family Hirundinidae, especially one of those species in which the tail is deeply forked. They have long, pointed wings, and are noted for the swiftness and gracefulness of their flight. Note: The most common North American species are the barn swallow (see under Barn), the cliff, or eaves, swallow (see under Cliff), the white-bellied, or tree, swallow (Tachycineta bicolor), and the bank swallow (see under Bank). The common European swallow (Chelidon rustica), and the window swallow, or martin (Chelidon urbica), are familiar species.
2.
(Zool.) Any one of numerous species of swifts which resemble the true swallows in form and habits, as the common American chimney swallow, or swift.
3.
(Naut.) The aperture in a block through which the rope reeves.
Swallow plover (Zool.), any one of several species of fork-tailed ploverlike birds of the genus Glareola, as Glareola orientalis of India; a pratincole.
Swallow shrike (Zool.), any one of several species of East Indian and Asiatic birds of the family Artamiidae, allied to the shrikes but similar to swallows in appearance and habits. The ashy swallow shrike (Artamus fuscus) is common in India.
Swallow warbler (Zool.), any one of numerous species of East Indian and Australian singing birds of the genus Dicaeum. They are allied to the honeysuckers.


Swallow  n.  
1.
The act of swallowing.
2.
The gullet, or esophagus; the throat.
3.
Taste; relish; inclination; liking. (Colloq.) "I have no swallow for it."
4.
Capacity for swallowing; voracity. "There being nothing too gross for the swallow of political rancor."
5.
As much as is, or can be, swallowed at once; as, a swallow of water.
6.
That which ingulfs; a whirlpool. (Obs.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Swallow" Quotes from Famous Books



... heated in the mow or having become moldy, which produces salivation. Second-crop clover and some irritant weeds in the pasture or forage may cause salivation. Cattle rubbed with mercurial ointment may swallow enough mercury in licking themselves to bring about the same result. (See "Mercury poisoning," p. 57.) Such cases, of course, arise from the constitutional action of mercury, and, on account of the common habit which the animals have of licking ...
— Special Report on Diseases of Cattle • U.S. Department of Agriculture
... rough food, never saw a woman or a book, undertook work to scare your city men up a tree and into a hole too easy, risked your life a dozen times a week in a tangle of logs, with the big river roaring behind just waiting to swallow you; saw nothing but woods and river, were cold and hungry and wet, and so tired you couldn't wiggle, until you got to feeling like the thing was never going to end, and until you got sick of it way through in spite ...
— The Riverman • Stewart Edward White
... severe frosts; sometimes they seem to shrivel or blacken, and may not perhaps be palatable then. Missel-thrushes and wood-pigeons eat them. Last winter in the stress of the sharp and continued frosts the greenfinches were driven in December to swallow the shrivelled blackberries still on the brambles. The fruity part of the berries was of course gone, and nothing remained but the seeds or pips, dry and hard as wood; they were reduced to feeding on this wretched food. Perhaps the last of the seeds available are ...
— Round About a Great Estate • Richard Jefferies
... by his widow after his death' or 'The property of an English nobleman on whose walls it has hung for two centuries.' By thunder! isn't it beautiful?" He chuckled. "Wonderful how these bullfrogs of connoisseurs swallow the dealers' flies! And here am I, who can paint any blamed thing from a hen-coop to a battle scene, doing signs for tobacco shops; and there is Sam, who can do Corots and Rousseaus and Daubignys by the yard, obliged to stick to a varnish pot and a scraper! Damnable, isn't it? But we don't ...
— Felix O'Day • F. Hopkinson Smith
... dark eyes, and they dilated when he knelt beside her. The flush of fever shone in her cheeks. He lifted her and held water to her dry lips, and felt an inexplicable sense of lightness as he saw her swallow in a slow, choking gulp. Gently ...
— Riders of the Purple Sage • Zane Grey


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