Word.ws English Dictionary

swallowed the anchor

swallowed the anchor is the simple past and past participle of swallow the anchor.

Meaning of swallow the anchor

Verb

swallow the anchor (third-person singular simple present swallows the anchor, present participle swallowing the anchor, simple past and past participle swallowed the anchor)

  1. (slang) To leave the navy.
    • My grand pa was the carpenter on his ship, but had a few years before swallowed the anchor and stepped on land to repair boats.2008, Scott Telek, The Ghost Ship, page 184

Questions about swallowed the anchor

What is swallowed the anchor the simple past and past participle of?
Swallowed the anchor is the simple past and past participle of swallow the anchor.

Words near swallowed the anchor in the dictionary

  1. swallowed
  2. swallowed a bitter pill
  3. swallowed down
  4. swallowed one's pride
  5. swallowed one's words
  6. swallowed the anchor
  7. swallowed the dictionary
  8. swallowed the leek
  9. swallowed up
  10. swallower
  11. swallowers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: swallowed the anchor (page history and authors); swallow the anchor (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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