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🐷 Animal food waste 🍺 To drink greedily 💦 To rinse 🐖 To feed pigs
to swill

to swill

5 7.5
To drink a lot quickly, usually alcoholic drinks
  • verb
  • /swɪl/
  • Informal
translation icon : empinar el codo
  • Phil Rollins, who'd worked with me, was paying for the ale, and I was swilling it down, trying to get drunk enough to sleep on the plane.
  • swill beer
  • swill whiskey
  • swill wine

I was having both of it and then Amanda's coming one day and that was hard to swill over acid in a bottle.

Examples

  • We stood cramped and sticky in a dark corner, swilling beers and talking about old times.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • Karl: If you swill it down with enough tea, it'll be getting there, you know.

    Down Terrace (2010)

  • Go on, go on, swill it!

    Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)

  • My God, you can swill it down, can't you?

    Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

  • I got myself another cup of coffee and swilled it down.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Two, most Americans feel that in order to stand being around their family, for even one or two days, they need to swill as much alcohol as humanly possible.

    Surviving Christmas (2004)

  • As she'd hoped, Becky was busy holding court in a far corner of the room, surrounded by spruced-up wranglers swilling liquor.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • He decided to swill his beer quickly before the game started.

  • They were all gathered at the bar, eager to swill their cocktails during happy hour.

  • After the long hike, we took a break to swill some refreshing lemonade.

Synonyms

to chug
vsto swill
  • Informal
31 5.0

To drink something quickly in large gulps

is similar but can also mean slower greedy drinking
to drink up
vsto swill
  • Informal
31 1.4

To finish all the liquid in a cup or bottle so nothing is left

is about excess drinking often quickly not only finishing one drink
to gulp
vsto swill
26 2.9

Swallow a drink quickly, often because you feel nervous or thirsty

is about heavy or greedy drinking rather than noisy swallowing
to pop
vsto swill
  • Informal
25 8.2

To drink an alcoholic drink quickly

is similar but usually implies broader heavy consumption not one drink
to guzzle
vsto swill
  • Informal
16 5.8

To drink a lot very quickly

is similar but less about urgent thirst and more about excess
to booze
vsto swill
  • Informal
5 8.4

To drink a lot of alcohol

is about heavy quick or greedy drinking rather than informal frequent drinking
to quaff
vsto swill
  • Archaic
4 9.1

To drink a large amount quickly and with pleasure

is similar but the key often sounds negative or greedy
to pour down
vsto swill
  • Informal
2 5.7

To drink all of a glass or bottle quickly in one go

is similar but usually points to heavy greedy consumption not only entirety
to swig
vsto swill
  • Informal
1 6.7

To drink a large amount quickly in one swallow

is similar but often covers repeated heavy drinking not one swallow
to drink down
vsto swill
1 3.2

To empty a glass quickly in one long gulp

is similar but the key stresses large greedy quantity rather than completion
to swill down
vsto swill
  • Informal
8.0

To drink a lot very quickly, often alcohol

has identical meaning but is the phrasal version
to swigger
vsto swill
  • Informal
9.9

To drink a liquid quickly in big gulps, often alcohol

is broader and covers greedy heavy drinking not only gulping
to chugalug
vsto swill
  • Slang
9.9

To drink something very quickly in one go

is similar but may not always mean finishing everything at once
to toss off
vsto swill
  • Informal
8.4

To drink a whole glass quickly, often of alcohol

is often about repeated heavy drinking rather than a single act

Antonyms

to sip
127 1.0

To drink a small amount at a time, usually slowly

Phrasal Verbs

to swill down
  • Informal
8.0

To drink a lot very quickly, often alcohol

Compounds

unrepresentative swill
  • Informal
9.9

False or useless information that does not show the real situation

How Fast

to guzzle
  • Informal
16 5.8
to swill
  • Informal
5 7.5
to chug
  • Informal
31 5.0
to drink
∞ 1.0
to sip
127 1.0

Surface Forms

swill infinitive
swilled past
swilled past participle
swilling present participle
swills third person singular

Etymology

Swill for drinking likely developed from the same idea of gulping or washing, so it sounds rough and greedy; think of the common word swallow to remember noisy, quick drinking. That's why to swill a drink means 'to drink a lot quickly'.