swallowing
吞嚥; 下嚥運動
Swal·low v. t. [imp. & p. p. Swallowed p. pr. & vb. n. 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. --Shak.
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. --Num. xvi. 32.
3. To receive or embrace, as opinions or belief, without examination or scruple; to receive implicitly.
Though that story . . . be not so readily swallowed. --Sir T. Browne.
4. To engross; to appropriate; -- usually with up.
Homer excels . . . in this, that he swallowed up the honor of those who succeeded him. --Pope.
5. To occupy; to take up; to employ.
The necessary provision of the life swallows the greatest part of their time. --Locke.
6. To seize and waste; to exhaust; to consume.
Corruption swallowed what the liberal hand
Of bounty scattered. --Thomson.
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.
Syn: -- To absorb; imbibe; ingulf; engross; consume. See Absorb.