Meaning & use
swallow
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Meanings
verbtransitive or intransitive
To make food, drink or other matter go down the throat toward the stomach.
Grammar: With an object: swallow the pill. Without one: it hurts to swallow.
Patterns
- swallow something
- swallow down something
She swallowed the tablet with a glass of water.
He found it hard to swallow after the dental work.
The baby swallowed a mouthful of milk and smiled.
verbtransitivefigurativeinformal
To accept or believe something, or to put up with something unpleasant without protest.
Grammar: Takes an object, often informal: swallow your pride, swallow a story.
Patterns
- swallow your pride
- swallow a story
I swallowed my pride and asked for help.
Nobody could swallow his excuse about the dog eating the report.
She swallowed the insult and kept smiling.
nouncountablebiology
A small, fast bird with long pointed wings and a forked tail that catches insects in flight and migrates far.
Grammar: Countable: a swallow, a flock of swallows.
Patterns
- a swallow's nest
A swallow built its nest under the roof of the barn.
The swallows left for Africa in early autumn.
nouncountable
One act of swallowing, or the amount taken down at once.
Grammar: Countable: a swallow of water.
Patterns
- a swallow of something
He took a long swallow of cold juice.
With one swallow, she finished the medicine.
Word forms
| third person singular | swallows |
|---|---|
| past tense | swallowed |
| past participle | swallowed |
| -ing form | swallowing |
| plural | swallows |
Common combinations
- swallow a pill
- Some children find it hard to swallow a pill.
- swallow your pride
- He had to swallow his pride and apologize.
- swallow hard
- She swallowed hard before she spoke.
- swallow a story
- Few people would swallow such a strange story.
- swallow up
- The fog swallowed up the whole valley.
Synonyms and how they differ
- gulp
- Gulp means to swallow quickly and in large amounts, often noisily, while swallow is neutral.
- consume
- Consume is more formal and covers eating or drinking over a period, not the throat movement.
- accept
- Accept is the plain word for taking a claim as true; swallow suggests doing so too easily or reluctantly.
- stomach
- Stomach used as a verb means to tolerate something unpleasant and usually appears in negatives.
Opposites
Word family
- swallowing noun
- the act of moving food down the throat
- swallowable adjective
- able to be swallowed
- swallowtail noun
- a large butterfly with tail-like extensions on its wings
- swallow-tailed adjective
- having a forked tail
Commonly confused: swallow or swollow? swallow or sparrow?
swallow vs swollow
This is a misspelling; the correct spelling is swallow, with an after the w.
swallow vs sparrow
A sparrow is a small brown songbird, while a swallow has a forked tail and long wings.
Practice
Which sentence uses swallow in a figurative sense?
Choose one answer.
Swallowing pride means holding back one's feelings and accepting something unpleasant. The other sentences are literal.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “swallow”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.