Swallows

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. A small bird known for its aerial acrobatics during migration ; to make food or drink pass down the throat ; to accept or endure something silently or without complaint
2. A type of bird noted for flying swiftly during seasonal movements ; the action of causing something to move from the mouth to the stomach ; the act of silently accepting a situation or hardship
3. A migratory bird that feeds on insects in flight ; the process of swallowing or ingesting something ; the condition of quietly enduring or tolerating an unpleasant experience

Etymology: Swallows the bird and swallows the verb are two unrelated words that happen to look identical in English. The bird's name comes from Old English "swealwe", which goes back to a Proto-Germanic form, "swalwǭ", shared with German "Schwalbe" and Dutch "zwaluw". The verb descends from Old English "swelgan", meaning to gulp or devour, and it is related to Dutch "zwelgen", meaning to revel or guzzle. The two words meet in the noun for the throat-swallowing sense, which is a different word again. Old English "swelh" and "swelg" meant a gulf, chasm, or abyss, and the Old Norse cognate "svelgr" meant a whirlpool or current. The idea that the sea or a pit swallows things seems to have fed into the verb, so the act of swallowing and the bird share no common root.

Synonyms: gulps, ingests, devours, consumes, down