deglutition

plural deglutitions

1. countableuncountablemedicineThe act or process of swallowing.First known use mid 17th c.

   [T]he action of the gullet, that is deglutition, is performed and conſummated, the action being animall and partly Naturall.

   1653, John Bulwer, “Scene XI. Lip Gallantry, or Certaine Labiall Fashions Invented by Divers Nations.”, in Anthropometamorphosis: Man Transform’d; or, The Artificial Changling […], 2nd edition, London: […] William Hunt, →OCLC, page 189

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   The Uvula […] ſerves as an arched and ſlippery Bridge, exactly fitted every way to cover the convex Sides and Rima of the Glottis, for the Aliment to ſlide eaſily along in Deglutition; it prevents the Aliment from falling out of the Fauces into the Larynx in Deglutition; and being moved by its Muſcles, protruds the Aliment backward into the upper Part of the Fauces.

   1742, [Herman] Boerhaave, “Of the Origin, Nature, and Mixture of the Saliva with the Aliments”, in Dr. Boerhaave’s Academical Lectures on the Theory of Physic. […], volume I (Containing the History of Physic, […]), London: Printed for W. Innys, […], →OCLC, § 70, page 170

   A man of the age of twenty-ſeven had a tubercle at the root of his tongue, for about ſix years; […] Deglutitions were rendered extremely difficult.

   1762, Anthony Storck [i.e., Anton von Störck], “Case VIII”, in An Essay on the Medicinal Nature of Hemlock. In Two Parts. […], Edinburgh: Printed for A. Donaldson and J. Reid, for Alex[ander] Donaldson, →OCLC, part II, pages 108–109

   Feeling without judgment is a washy draught indeed; but judgment untempered by feeling is too bitter and husky a morsel for human deglutition.

   1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter VI, in Jane Eyre. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 174

   Sometimes they work by satire, as in the case of the ants here referred to; sometimes by terror, by spitefulness, by cunning stealthiness and tricks of decoy, by immense deglutitions, by any and all sorts of animal habits that connect, with prey, ferocities, voracities and disgusts that make it symbolic of evil.

   1868, Horace Bushnell, “Of the Animal Infestations”, in Moral Uses of Dark Things, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner & Company, →OCLC, pages 287–288

   Some philosopher has said that the chief pleasure in a man's life, as in that of a cow, consists in the processes of mastication, deglutition, and digestion, and I am very much inclined to agree with him.

   1909, W[illiam] H[enry] Hudson, “The Village and ‘The Stones’”, in Afoot in England, London: Hutchinson & Co. […], →OCLC, page 251

   Synonyms: glutition