"swallow whole" meaning in English

See swallow whole in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: swallows whole [present, singular, third-person], swallowing whole [participle, present], swallowed whole [participle, past], swallowed whole [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} swallow whole (third-person singular simple present swallows whole, present participle swallowing whole, simple past and past participle swallowed whole)
  1. (transitive, idiomatic) To believe (a lie, excuse, story etc.) in its entirety and without question. Tags: idiomatic, transitive Synonyms: take at face value
    Sense id: en-swallow_whole-en-verb-edUuhh5k
  2. (transitive) To take in, absorb or comprehend something (information, news, etc.) in its entirety. Tags: transitive
    Sense id: en-swallow_whole-en-verb-ERSe2IbK Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 38 59 3 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 40 56 4 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 39 57 4
  3. (transitive) To destroy entirely and instantly. Tags: transitive
    Sense id: en-swallow_whole-en-verb-Z6lKyUgy
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "swallows whole",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "swallowing whole",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "swallowed whole",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "swallowed whole",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "swallow whole (third-person singular simple present swallows whole, present participle swallowing whole, simple past and past participle swallowed whole)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              20,
              33
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1683, Isaac Barrow, A treatise of the Pope's supremacy to which is added A discourse concerning the unity of the church:",
          "text": "It forbiddeth us to swallow whole the Doctrines and Precepts of men, without examination of them.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To believe (a lie, excuse, story etc.) in its entirety and without question."
      ],
      "id": "en-swallow_whole-en-verb-edUuhh5k",
      "links": [
        [
          "believe",
          "believe"
        ],
        [
          "lie",
          "lie"
        ],
        [
          "entirety",
          "entirety"
        ],
        [
          "without question",
          "without question"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, idiomatic) To believe (a lie, excuse, story etc.) in its entirety and without question."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "take at face value"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "38 59 3",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "40 56 4",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "39 57 4",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To take in, absorb or comprehend something (information, news, etc.) in its entirety."
      ],
      "id": "en-swallow_whole-en-verb-ERSe2IbK",
      "links": [
        [
          "take in",
          "take in"
        ],
        [
          "absorb",
          "absorb"
        ],
        [
          "comprehend",
          "comprehend"
        ],
        [
          "information",
          "information"
        ],
        [
          "news",
          "news"
        ],
        [
          "entirety",
          "entirety"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To take in, absorb or comprehend something (information, news, etc.) in its entirety."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              78,
              91
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2017 February 15, Patrick, kenneth in the (212), archived from the original on 17 Nov 2019:",
          "text": "[…] when the so-caled^([sic]) First Amendment Defense Act has the capacity to swallow whole almost all of our hard-won protections, if upheld by the courts.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To destroy entirely and instantly."
      ],
      "id": "en-swallow_whole-en-verb-Z6lKyUgy",
      "links": [
        [
          "destroy",
          "destroy"
        ],
        [
          "entirely",
          "entirely"
        ],
        [
          "instantly",
          "instantly"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To destroy entirely and instantly."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "swallow whole"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "swallows whole",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "swallowing whole",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "swallowed whole",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "swallowed whole",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "swallow whole (third-person singular simple present swallows whole, present participle swallowing whole, simple past and past participle swallowed whole)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              20,
              33
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1683, Isaac Barrow, A treatise of the Pope's supremacy to which is added A discourse concerning the unity of the church:",
          "text": "It forbiddeth us to swallow whole the Doctrines and Precepts of men, without examination of them.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To believe (a lie, excuse, story etc.) in its entirety and without question."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "believe",
          "believe"
        ],
        [
          "lie",
          "lie"
        ],
        [
          "entirety",
          "entirety"
        ],
        [
          "without question",
          "without question"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, idiomatic) To believe (a lie, excuse, story etc.) in its entirety and without question."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "take at face value"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To take in, absorb or comprehend something (information, news, etc.) in its entirety."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "take in",
          "take in"
        ],
        [
          "absorb",
          "absorb"
        ],
        [
          "comprehend",
          "comprehend"
        ],
        [
          "information",
          "information"
        ],
        [
          "news",
          "news"
        ],
        [
          "entirety",
          "entirety"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To take in, absorb or comprehend something (information, news, etc.) in its entirety."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              78,
              91
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2017 February 15, Patrick, kenneth in the (212), archived from the original on 17 Nov 2019:",
          "text": "[…] when the so-caled^([sic]) First Amendment Defense Act has the capacity to swallow whole almost all of our hard-won protections, if upheld by the courts.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To destroy entirely and instantly."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "destroy",
          "destroy"
        ],
        [
          "entirely",
          "entirely"
        ],
        [
          "instantly",
          "instantly"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To destroy entirely and instantly."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "swallow whole"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (1a05e46 and e3d6d4e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.