swallow

1. (transitive) To cause (food, drink etc.) to pass from the mouth into the stomach; to take into the stomach through the throat.Examples: "What the liquor was I do not know, but it was not so strong but that I could swallow it in great gulps and found it less burning than my burning throat."; "Clothes are to be worn and food is to be swallowed: they remain trapped in the physical world."; "The four-and-one-half-day trial was centered on acts that neither she nor prosecutors dispute: On July 13, 2012, she drove her Lexus S.U.V. erratically after swallowing Zolpidem, a generic form of the sleep medication Ambien."Synonyms: consume, devour, eat, gulptransitive

2. (transitive) To take (something) in so that it disappears; to consume, absorb.Examples: "The necessary provision of the life swallows the greatest part of their time."; "His body, like so many others swallowed by the ocean's hungry maw, was never found."; "Elsewhere still, they'd managed to find the wreck of a Japanese midget submarine, and so, when the battleships were done being swallowed by the seabed, some efforts were being made to haul this up as well."Synonyms: absorb, engulf, incorporate, swallow up, absorb, add on, assimilate, co-opttransitive

3. (intransitive) To take food down into the stomach; to make the muscular contractions of the oesophagus to achieve this, often taken as a sign of nervousness or strong emotion.Examples: "My throat was so sore that I was unable to swallow."; "She swallowed nervously then, appearing near sick with what she had to say."Synonyms: gulpintransitive

4. (transitive) To accept easily or without questions; to believe, accept.Examples: "this humbug was readily swallowed by men who were supposed to be intelligent,"; "Most newspapers we saw swallowed whole an S.R. estimate that it would cost £20m to equip the Region with point heaters."; "Be careful of the Commie Lies / swallow them and freedom dies / The USA must realize / that she's the biggest prize."Synonyms: buy, credittransitive

5. (intransitive) To engross; to appropriate; usually with up.Examples: "Homer excels […] in this, that he swallowed up the honour of those who succeeded him."Synonyms: absorb, monopolize, occupy, take overintransitive

6. (transitive) To retract; to recant.Examples: "to swallow one's opinions"; "Left her in her tears, and dried not one of them with his comfort; swallowed his vows whole"Synonyms: disavow, take back, abjure, backpedal, disavow, disown, eat one's words, recalltransitive