Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use swallow in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun

Swallow means to cause (food, drink etc.) to pass from the mouth into the stomach; to take into the stomach through the throat. Example: “My throat was so sore that I was unable to swallow.”

Examples of swallow by meaning

verbTo cause (food, drink etc.) to pass from the mouth into the stomach; to take into the stomach through the throat.

  • Clothes are to be worn and food is to be swallowed: they remain trapped in the physical world.2011 April 21, Jonathan Jones, The Guardian
  • 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.2014 February 28, Joseph Berger, “Fast Acquittal for Kennedy, Whose Name Put Prosecutors in Bind”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived...

verbTo take (something) in so that it disappears; to consume, absorb.

  • His body, like so many others swallowed by the ocean's hungry maw, was never found.2010 October 28, “What are the wild waves saying”, in The Economist
  • 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.2020 November 11, Drachinifel, 25:13 from the start, in The Salvage of Pearl Harbor Pt 1 - The Smoke Clears, archived from the original on...

verbTo take food down into the stomach; to make the muscular contractions of the oesophagus to achieve this, often taken as...

  • My throat was so sore that I was unable to swallow.
  • She swallowed nervously then, appearing near sick with what she had to say.1979, VC Andrews, Flowers in the Attic

verbTo accept easily or without questions; to believe, accept.

  • this humbug was readily swallowed by men who were supposed to be intelligent,1920, Romain Rolland, translated by Katherine Miller, Clerambault
  • Most newspapers we saw swallowed whole an S.R. estimate that it would cost £20m to equip the Region with point heaters.1962 March, “Lessons of the Freeze-up”, in Modern Railways, page 146
  • Americans swallowed his tale because they wanted to.2011 April 22, Madeleine Bunting, The Guardian

verbTo retract; to recant.

  • to swallow one's opinions

verbTo put up with; to bear patiently or without retaliation.

  • to swallow an affront or insult

nounThe amount swallowed in one gulp; the act of swallowing.

  • He took the aspirin with a single swallow of water.
  • She took a swallow of milk and made a face.1978, Tom Reamy, Blind Voices

nounThe opening in a pulley block between the sheave and shell through which the rope passes.

  • In addition, j-lock shackles can pass through the swallow of a modern genoa track even with a sheet in tension already there, and this is very useful when preparing a sail change on the same tack.2008, Danilo Fabbroni, Rigging: Rig Your Boat Right for Racing or Cruising
  • The rope goes through the swallow.2012, Percy W. Blandford, Practical Knots and Ropework, page 350

More sentences with swallow

  • The first time he chewed tobacco, he swallowed his chew and got extremely sick.From the entry chew
  • The dog chomped on the treat and swallowed it in one gulp.From the entry chomp
  • He swallowed a mouthful of sea water when he fell in.From the entry mouthful
  • He was given a meagre piece of cake that he swallowed in one bite.From the entry meagre
  • Many snakes can unhinge their jaw joints to swallow large prey.From the entry unhinge
  • That my own son could have done something so horrible is a hard pill to swallow.From the entry hard pill to swallow
  • Crushing pills that were designed to be swallowed whole may lead to dose dumping.From the entry dose dumping
  • One swallow does not a summer make.From the entry make
  • I was swallowing hard to hold back the tears.From the entry hold back
  • As I swallowed I felt something strange in my throat.From the entry throat
  • We had to take my little brother to the hospital when he swallowed some of my sister's nail-polish remover.From the entry remover
  • I swallowed the official version totus porcus.From the entry totus porcus
  • We've already been through a lot, and now with this latest affront, it's getting to be hard to swallow.From the entry hard to swallow
  • For my father's sake, I thought I must keep up appearances, but the food stuck in my throat, and I could not swallow another mouthful.From the entry keep up appearances
  • Do you ever get the feeling that you are but an infinitesimal speck, swallowed by the vastness of the universe and beyond?From the entry infinitesimal
  • In this picture he is performing his famous Yogi trick of swallowing a package of needles and some thread and extracting the needles threaded.From the entry yogi
  • A piece of my dog's plastic chew toy broke off and he swallowed it, requiring surgery to remove it. The procedure was very expensive, but fortunately I had pet insurance.From the entry pet insurance
  • The cronching echoes in the thick air, which swallows all other sound.2021 July 6, Carrot Quinn, The Sunset Route: Freight Trains, Forgiveness, and Freedom on the Rails in the American West, New York, N.Y.…. From the entry cronch
  • I retreated into myself and allowed myself to be swallowed into a typically autistic shutdown.2018, Laura James, Odd Girl Out: My Extraordinary Autistic Life, unnumbered page. From the entry shutdown
  • Her blankets would swallow her alive if she sank further into the bed.2017, Hannah Polanco, Words of Venom. From the entry fall into oneself
  • When they approached, he turned from them and made swallowing noises indispersed with burps.2016, Thomas Corfield, The World Is Badly Made. From the entry burp
  • “We swallow your lies and cause them to build our powers.”2016, Dr. Jol, Suburban Brand, Charlotte Publishing Press, →ISBN. From the entry glossa
  • I swallow but I smile and they slide on past me to film someone else.2016, Jill MacKenzie, Spin the Sky, New York, N.Y.: Sky Pony Press, Skyhorse Publishing, →ISBN, page 98. From the entry easy peasy mac and cheesy
  • Caitlin could only nod and swallow to this through tear-brimmed eyes.2016, Marjorie Day, The Belle of Collingwood. From the entry tear-brimmed
  • Smoking weakened the pharyngoglottal closure reflex, pharyngo-upper esophageal contractile reflex and reflexive pharyngeal swallow.2015 July 16, “Association between Chronic Laryngitis and Particulate Matter Based on the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination…. From the entry pharyngoglottal

Meaning of swallow

  1. verb To cause (food, drink etc.) to pass from the mouth into the stomach; to take into the stomach through the throat.
  2. verb To take (something) in so that it disappears; to consume, absorb.
  3. verb 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.

Full definition of swallow

Questions about swallow in a sentence

How do you use swallow in a sentence?
Swallow is used as a verb and noun. For example: “My throat was so sore that I was unable to swallow.”
What is a short sentence with swallow?
“to swallow one's opinions”
What does swallow mean?
Swallow means to cause (food, drink etc.) to pass from the mouth into the stomach; to take into the stomach through the throat.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: swallow (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use swallow in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/swallow. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.