swallow-holen.
= swallow n.2 1b.
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the world > the earth > land > landscape > low land > hole or pit > [noun] > pot-hole or swallow-hole
water sink1553
swallow1610
swallow-hole1660
estuary1665
swallet1668
cockpit1683
sinkhole1772
sink1791
pot1797
water-swallow1811
shake-hole1823
pothole1826
fleet-hole1839
spout hole1849
katavothron1869
ponor1890
sump1951
1660 J. Childrey Britannia Baconica 74 About Badminton also are several holes (called Swallow-holes) where the Waters..fall into the bowels of the earth, and are seen no more.
1829 S. Glover Hist. County of Derby I. 11 The channel of the Manifold river is here dry in dry seasons, owing to the vast swallow-holes at Darfa cliff.
1839 Civil Engineer & Architect's Jrnl. 2 151/2 These rivulets pour down the hill upon the surface of the tertiary clay, until they arrive at the chalk, where they are entirely absorbed in swallow-holes.
1891 Leeds Mercury 5 Nov. 3/6 Shafts being made into it, by which the water absorbed by conites, fissures and ‘swallow holes’, would be rendered available.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1918; most recently modified version published online June 2019).
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n.1660