1. Pass through the oesophagus as part of eating or drinking
   "Swallow the raw fish — it won't kill you!";
   - get down
    
2. Engulf and destroy
   "The Nazis swallowed the Baltic countries"
    
3. Enclose or envelop completely, as if by swallowing
   "The huge waves swallowed the small boat and it sank shortly thereafter";
   - immerse, swallow up, bury, eat up
    
4. Utter unclearly
   "She swallowed the last words of her speech"
    
5. Take back what one has said
   "He swallowed his words";
   - take back, unsay, withdraw
    
6. Keep from expressing
   "I swallowed my anger and kept quiet"
    
7. Tolerate or accommodate oneself to
   "I swallowed the insult";
   - accept, live with
    
8. Believe or accept without questioning or challenge
   "Am I supposed to swallow that story?"

1. The act of swallowing
   "one swallow of the liquid was enough";
   - drink, deglutition [technical]
    
2. A small amount of liquid food
   "a swallow of ale";
   - sup
    
3. Small long-winged songbird noted for swift graceful flight and the regularity of its migrations
   "Swallows darted through the air, catching insects on the wing"

Derived forms: swallows, swallowed, swallowing

Type of: abide, annihilate [informal], bear, believe, brook, close in, consume, consumption, demolish [informal], destroy, digest, disown, enclose, endure, have, hold back, inclose, ingest, ingestion, intake, keep, keep back, mouth, mouthful, oscine, oscine bird, pulverise [Brit, informal], pulverize [Brit, informal], put up, renounce, repudiate, restrain, shut in, speak, spifflicate [Brit, informal], spiflicate [Brit, informal], stand, stick out, stomach, suffer, support, take, take in, talk, taste, tolerate, uptake, utter, verbalise [Brit], verbalize

Encyclopedia: Swallow, Lincolnshire