[f. SWALLOW v. or sb.2 + HOLE sb.] = SWALLOW sb.2 1 b.
1661. J. Childrey, Brit. Baconica, 74. About Badminton also are several holes (called Swallow-holes) where the Waters … fall into the bowels of the earth, and are seen no more.
1829. Glover’s Hist. Derby, I. 11. The channel of the Manifold river is here dry in dry seasons, owing to the vast swallow-holes at Darfa cliff.
1839. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., II. 151/2. These rivulets pour down the hill upon the surface of the tertiary clay, until they arrive at the chalk, where they are entirely absorbed in swallow-holes.
1891. Leeds Mercury, 5 Nov., 3/6. Shafts being made into it, by which the water absorbed by conites, fissures and ‘swallow holes,’ would be rendered available.
