to bolt down
- phrasal verb
- /boʊlt daʊn/
- Informal
:
devorar
- She was so hungry that she bolted down her sandwich in just a few minutes.
Examples
-
After the football match, he bolted down his dinner before heading out with friends.
-
He gazed at the flames for several long seconds, then bolted down a portion of the liquor.
Fiction book (1994) -
The kids bolted down their snacks as soon as they arrived at the party.
Synonyms
31
5.0
To drink something quickly in large gulps
25
8.2
To drink an alcoholic drink quickly
22
5.4
Eat or drink something quickly and completely
19
3.0
To eat something quickly and eagerly
16
2.6
To eat food quickly and noisily without chewing properly
14
6.0
Put something down hard so it makes a loud noise or quickly drink something
9
7.7
To drink or eat something very quickly, often without pausing
7
5.8
Eat food very quickly when you are very hungry
6
3.1
To eat or drink something quickly without stopping
2
4.4
To eat food very quickly without chewing properly
2
5.7
To drink all of a glass or bottle quickly in one go
1
3.2
To empty a glass quickly in one long gulp
To eat a lot of food very fast without stopping
To eat a lot of food quickly and greedily
Antonyms
How Fast
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is only partly predictable: if a learner knows the verb sense 'bolt' = 'run away/suddenly dash' and understands 'down' as indicating movement along a path (e.g. 'down the street'), they can compose the sense 'run away quickly'. However, 'bolt' also commonly appears with a different sense ('to eat hastily') and the particle 'down' does not always signal this directional meaning, so the specific idiomatic use is not fully transparent to a B1 learner who only knows the basic constituent definitions provided.
Etymology
Bolt down may come from the image of a fast bolt (like an arrow) shooting down your throat; imagine swallowing food in one quick shot so it goes straight down. That's why it means 'to eat or drink something very quickly'.