🧑‍🍽️ A person eating 🕳️ A thing that takes in

swallower

1 8.2

A thing that takes in other things and does not give them back, often by accident

noun
/ˈswɑːlə/

: tragador

During the storm, the river turned into a swallower, rapidly consuming anything that came too close to its banks.

Examples

The black hole is a swallower of light, making it impossible to see what lies beyond its event horizon.
The all-time champion swallower of any object swallowed 2,533 objects in 1927.

Fiction book (1991)
The massive hole in the ground proved to be a swallower of all the debris from the collapsed building.

Synonyms

muncher

vsswallower

12 7.5

A person or animal that chews food loudly

consumes items often without prolonged chewing and sometimes suddenly

digester

vsswallower

Specialized

2 8.0

A strong tank that uses bacteria to break down plant or animal waste and make gas

consumes matter generally without implying chemical breakdown

intaker

vsswallower

8.3

A person who collects new people's information or a device that brings air into a system

focuses on sudden or complete consumption rather than routine input

masticator

vsswallower

8.1

A person, animal, or machine that chews and grinds food

consumes items rather than just grinding them first

Compounds

fire-swallower

9.2

A performer who seems to swallow fire to entertain people

Surface Forms

swallower singular

swallowers plural

Morphology

swallower = swallow (semi-transparent) = swallow + er

Formed regularly as an agent/actor noun, but the sense is metaphorically extended to objects or features that 'consume' or 'take in' things, which may not be fully predictable for learners.

Etymology

Swallower comes from the verb swallow, meaning 'to take in or cover completely', with the ending -er that makes it 'a thing that does the action'. So we call a machine, place, or natural feature a swallower when it seems to take things in or consume them, often suddenly or completely.