SWILLING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does swilling mean? 

• SWILLING (noun)
  The noun SWILLING has 1 sense:

1. the drinking of large mouthfuls rapidly

  Familiarity information: SWILLING used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SWILLING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The drinking of large mouthfuls rapidly

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

gulping; guzzling; swilling

Hypernyms ("swilling" is a kind of...):

drinking; imbibing; imbibition (the act of consuming liquids)

Derivation:

swill (drink large quantities of (liquid, especially alcoholic drink))

 Context examples 

But, I perfectly remember that I sat swilling tea until my whole nervous system, if I had had any in those days, must have gone by the board.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“It would take a clever man to live upon thy labor, Hugh,” remarked one of the foresters, “seeing that the half of thy time is spent in swilling mead at the 'Pied Merlin.'”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Both Miss Lavinia and Miss Clarissa had a superstition, however, that he would have declared his passion, if he had not been cut short in his youth (at about sixty) by over-drinking his constitution, and over-doing an attempt to set it right again by swilling Bath water.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)