| 释义 |
swallower|ˈswɒləʊə(r)|
Also 1 swelᵹere, 6 Sc. swelliar.
[f. as prec. + -er1. In OE. swelᵹere = OHG. swelgâri (MHG. swelher, G. schwelger) glutton, tippler.]
One who or that which swallows.
1. a. lit.: see swallow v. 1; esp. a voracious eater or drinker. Also in Comb., as acorn-swallower, sword-swallower.
a1000ælfric Colloq. 16 in Wr.-Wülcker 102 Ic ne eom swa micel swelᵹere þæt ic ealle cynn metta on anre ᵹereordinge etan mæᵹe. 1513Douglas æneis xiii. vi. 222 Thir akcorne swelliaris, the fat swyne. 16051st Pt. Jeronimo iii. i. 42 Deuourer of apparell, thou huge swallower. 1694Motteux Rabelais iv. xxix. 118 A huge Greedy-Guts, a tall woundy swallower of hot Wardens and Muscles. 1710Fuller Tatler No. 205 ⁋2, I..always speak of them with the Distinction of the Eaters, and the Swallowers. 1842Dickens Amer. Notes vi. (1868) 51 Of all kinds of eaters of fish, or flesh, or fowl, in these latitudes, the swallowers of oysters alone are not gregarious. 1891Hardy Tess xlviii, The enormous numbers that had been gulped down by the insatiable swallower [viz. a threshing machine].
b. spec. A deep-sea fish, Chiasmodon niger, widely distributed in the Atlantic, having an immensely distensible stomach which enables it to swallow fishes larger than itself.
2. transf.: see swallow v. 3. (In quots. attrib.)
1891Meredith Poems, Eng. bef. Storm iii, Yon swallower wave with shroud of foam. 1898― Forest History iv, The forest's heart of fog on mossed morass, On purple pool and silky cotton-grass, Revealed where lured the swallower byway.
3. fig. (also with up): see swallow v. 4, 5, 10 c.
a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VI, 157 Affirming him to be..the moste swallower vp and consumer of the kynges treasure. 1810Bentham Packing (1821) 191 Give them an oath to swallow, every impure property is, by this consecrated vehicle, carried off. Note that the oath by which the swallower is rendered thus unlikely ‘to do wrong,’ is the very oath, which..is regularly productive of perjury. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. iii. i. vi, Here too is a Swallower of Formulas. 1855Mrs. Gaskell Let. Feb. (1966) 332 Meta's atelier is such a swallower-up of time.
Add:[1.] c. A person who smuggles drugs through Customs by swallowing them sealed in a bag which can subsequently be excreted and recovered. Cf. *stuffer n. 4. colloq.
1983Listener 28 July 3/3 The customs teams delicately refer to such smugglers as ‘the swallowers and stuffers’. 1988Independent 8 Apr. 3/6 Body packers, mules, stuffers and swallowers are becoming more sophisticated at smuggling drugs. 1992N.Y. Times 12 July v. 3/2 Everyone at Kennedy was always on the alert for drug couriers, including ‘swallowers’. |