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gulp

noun
/ɡʌlp/

Etymology

From Middle English gulpen, probably from West Flemish or Middle Dutch gulpen, golpen, of uncertain origin. Perhaps of imitative origin, or related to Dutch galpen (“to roar, squeal”), English galp, gaup (“to gape”). Related to German Low German gulpen (“to gush out, belch, gulp”), West Frisian gjalpe, gjalpje, gjealpje (“to gush, spurt forth”), Danish gulpe, gylpe (“to gulp up, disgorge”), dialectal Swedish glapa (“to gulp down”), Old English galpettan (“to gulp down, eat greedily, devour”). More at galp.

  1. derived from gulpen
  2. inherited from gulpen

Definitions

  1. The usual amount swallowed.

    • What the liquor was I do not know, but it was not so strong but that I could swallow it in great gulps and found it less burning than my burning throat.

  2. The sound of swallowing, sometimes indicating fear.

    • Little Stanislovas was also trembling, and all but too frightened to speak. "They — they sent me to tell you — " he said, with a gulp.
    • Indeed, the envisioned future should produce a bit of "the gulp factor" […], there should be an almost audible "gulp".

  3. An unspecified small number of bytes, often two.

  4. ›+ 3 more definitions

    1. To swallow eagerly, or in large draughts

      To swallow eagerly, or in large draughts; to swallow up; to take down in one swallow.

      • He does not swallow, but he gulps it down.

    2. To react nervously by swallowing.

      • The man eyed Percy with a chilly eye. "Well," he said, "What's troublin you?" Percy gulped. The man's mere appearance was a sedative. "Er-nothing! […]"
      • I'd always been nervous-excited; this was nervous-terrified. When I finished puking, I sat down gulping air for a while, trying to pull myself together.
      • My heart was beating madly and I was gulping nervous energy.

    3. An indication of (the sound of) an involuntary fear reaction in the form of a swallowing…

      An indication of (the sound of) an involuntary fear reaction in the form of a swallowing motion.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for gulp. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA