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Wiktionary

gulp

English

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WOTD – 26 December 2015

Etymology

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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.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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gulp (plural gulps)

  1. The usual amount swallowed.
    Synonym: slug
    • [1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:
      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.
  2. The sound of swallowing, sometimes indicating fear.
    • 1905 April–October, Upton Sinclair, chapter XVII, in The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1906 February 26, →OCLC:
      Little Stanislovas was also trembling, and all but too frightened to speak. "They — they sent me to tell you — " he said, with a gulp.
    • 1994, James Charles Collins, Jerry I. Porras, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies:
      Indeed, the envisioned future should produce a bit of "the gulp factor" […] , there should be an almost audible "gulp".
  3. (rare, computing) An unspecified small number of bytes, often two.

Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

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gulp (third-person singular simple present gulps, present participle gulping, simple past and past participle gulped)

  1. To swallow eagerly, or in large draughts; to swallow up; to take down in one swallow.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:drink
    • 1782, William Cowper, Table-Talk:
      He does not swallow, but he gulps it down.
  2. To react nervously by swallowing.
    • 1930, P. G. Wodehouse, A Damsel in Distress, published 2004, page 198:
      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! […]"
    • 2003, Carl Deuker, High Heat, page 140:
      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.
    • 2006, Nancy Anne Nicholson, Thin White Female in No Acute Distress: A Memoir, page 187:
      My heart was beating madly and I was gulping nervous energy.

Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Interjection

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gulp

  1. An indication of (the sound of) an involuntary fear reaction in the form of a swallowing motion.
    Synonym: ulp
    • 1982, Gary Smalley, If Only He Knew, page 163:
      "Honey, I know you want to go to their home next week, but there's one thing that keeps happening when we're together that really drives me away from social gatherings in general. (Oh, what is it … gulp.) Well, I'm not sure I can really explain it without offending you. (Gulp, gulp.) Do you really want to talk about it? (Yes.) […]"
    • 1990 December 9, Ed Fendor, “The Promised Land”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 21, page 4:
      I wonder: if it had not been for GCN, would I now be the one who settles for the semi-closeted, factionalized world that Bay Windows and its ilk define as Shangri-la? Perhaps. What is certain, however, is that you have never jettisoned concern fror anybody for the sake of popularity and (gulp) assimilationist marketability.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Dutch

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Etymology

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Uncertain; possibly (by metathesis) from glop (“hole, opening”); also compare gleuf (“slot, slit”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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gulp f (plural gulpen, diminutive gulpje n)

  1. fly; opening in a man's pants to facilitate relieving himself

Descendants

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  • Afrikaans: gulp
  • → Papiamentu: hòlpis (Aruba), hòlpi

Further reading

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Swedish

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Interjection

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gulp

  1. gulp (expresses fear)

Turkmen

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Etymology

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From Arabic قُفْل (qufl). Cognates with Uyghur قۇلۇپ (qulup), Uzbek qulf, Uzbek qulf, Kazakh құлып (qūlyp),Kyrgyz кулпу (kulpu).

Noun

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gulp

  1. lock
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