Part 1027

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." Shak.

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.

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

Swal"low, 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.

Massinger.

4. Capacity for swallowing; voracity.

There being nothing too gross for the swallow of political rancor.

Prof. Wilson.

5. As much as is, or can be, swallowed at once; as, a swallow of water.

6. That which ingulfs; a whirlpool. [Obs.] Fabyan.

Swal"low*er (?), n. One who swallows; also, a glutton. Tatler.

Swal"low*fish` (?), n. (Zoöl.) The European sapphirine gurnard (Trigla hirundo). It has large pectoral fins.

Swal"low*tail` (?), n. 1. (Carp.) A kind of tenon or tongue used in making joints. See Dovetail.

2. (Bot.) A species of willow.

3. (Fort.) An outwork with converging sides, its head or front forming a reëntrant angle; -- so called from its form. Called also priestcap.