gulp

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.

• IPA^(key): /ɡʌlp/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌlp

gulp (plural gulps)

1. The usual amount swallowed.

   Synonym: slug

   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, chapter 4, in Moonfleet, London, Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934:

     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, Upton Sinclair, chapter XVII, in The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 26 February 1906, →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.

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.

• gulp down
• gulp up

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.) […]"

• swallowing on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
• “gulp”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.

• plug

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

• IPA^(key): /ɣʏlp/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: gulp
• Rhymes: -ʏlp

gulp f (plural gulpen, diminutive gulpje n)

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

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

• van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “gulp2”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute

gulp

1. gulp (expresses fear)

gulp

1. lock