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Sip vs Swallow - What's the difference?

sip | swallow |

In transitive terms the difference between sip and swallow

is that sip is to drink slowly, small mouthfuls at a time while swallow is to accept easily or without questions; to believe, accept.

In intransitive terms the difference between sip and swallow

is that sip is to drink a small quantity while swallow is 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.

sip

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A small mouthful of drink
  • Verb

  • To drink slowly, small mouthfuls at a time.
  • * 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 5
  • He held out to me a bowl of steaming broth, that filled the room with a savour sweeter, ten thousand times, to me than every rose and lily of the world; yet would not let me drink it at a gulp, but made me sip it with a spoon like any baby.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=5 citation , passage=A waiter brought his aperitif, which was a small scotch and soda, and as he sipped it gratefully he sighed.
       ‘Civilized,’ he said to Mr. Campion. ‘Humanizing.’ […] ‘Cigars and summer days and women in big hats with swansdown face-powder, that's what it reminds me of.’}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Revenge of the nerds , passage=Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.}}
  • To drink a small quantity.
  • * (John Dryden)
  • [She] raised it to her mouth with sober grace; / Then, sipping , offered to the next in place.
  • To taste the liquor of; to drink out of.
  • * (John Dryden)
  • They skim the floods, and sip the purple flowers.
  • (Scotland, US, dated)
  • (Webster 1913)

    Synonyms

    * nurse * See also

    See also

    * seep * siphon

    Anagrams

    * ----

    swallow

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) swolowen, swolwen, . See also (l). The noun is from late (etyl) , from the verb.

    Alternative forms

    * (l), (l) (obsolete)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To cause (food, drink etc.) to pass from the mouth into the stomach; to take into the stomach through the throat.
  • * 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4:
  • 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.
  • * 2011 , Jonathan Jones, The Guardian , 21 Apr 2011:
  • Clothes are to be worn and food is to be swallowed : they remain trapped in the physical world.
  • To take (something) in so that it disappears; to consume, absorb.
  • * John Locke
  • The necessary provision of the life swallows the greatest part of their time.
  • * 2010 , "What are the wild waves saying", The Economist , 28 Oct 2010:
  • His body, like so many others swallowed by the ocean’s hungry maw, was never found.
  • 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.
  • My throat was so sore that I was unable to swallow .
  • * 1979 , VC Andrews, Flowers in the Attic :
  • She swallowed nervously then, appearing near sick with what she had to say.
  • To accept easily or without questions; to believe, accept.
  • * Sir Thomas Browne
  • Though that story be not so readily swallowed .
  • * 2011 , Madeleine Bunting, The Guardian , 22 Apr 2011:
  • Americans swallowed his tale because they wanted to.
  • To engross; to appropriate; usually with up .
  • * Alexander Pope
  • Homer excels in this, that he swallowed up the honour of those who succeeded him.
  • To retract; to recant.
  • to swallow one's opinions
  • * Shakespeare
  • swallowed his vows whole
  • To put up with; to bear patiently or without retaliation.
  • to swallow an affront or insult
    Derived terms
    * bitter pill to swallow * swallowable * swallow one's pride * swallow up

    See also

    * dysphagia

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (archaic) A deep chasm or abyss in the earth.
  • The amount swallowed in one gulp; the act of swallowing.
  • He took the aspirin with a single swallow of water.

    Etymology 2

    (wikipedia swallow) (etyl) swealwe, from Germanic. Cognate with Danish svale, Dutch zwaluw, German Schwalbe, Swedish svala.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A small, migratory bird of the Hirundinidae family with long, pointed, moon-shaped wings and a forked tail which feeds on the wing by catching insects.
  • (nautical) The aperture in a block through which the rope reeves.
  • Synonyms
    * (small bird of Hirundunudae) martlet * barn swallow (official British name)
    Derived terms
    * one swallow does not make a summer * swallow-tailed

    Anagrams

    * wallows