gulp
/ɡʌlp/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.93 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The sound of swallowing, sometimes indicating fear.
noun
An unspecified small number of bytes, often two.
verb
To react nervously by swallowing.
intj
An indication of (the sound of) an involuntary fear reaction in the form of a swallowing motion.
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "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"."
- "He does not swallow, but he gulps it down."
- "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."
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: gulpen, -