Also 4 swelwyng. [f. as prec. + -ING2.] That swallows; usually transf. or fig.: see the verb.
a. 1400. Prymer (1891), 24 (Benedicite). Fier and swelwynghete blesse to the lord.
1548. Elyot, Voraginosus..., full of gulfes or swalowyng pittes.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 193. These blind and swalowyng sandes.
a. 1586. Sidney, Ps. V. iv. Their throate it is an open swallowing grave.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., III. vii. 128. Almost shouldred in the swallowing gulph, Of blind forgetfulnesse.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., II. 53. Euery swallowing waue threatned our death.
1806. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life, I. i. (ed. 3), 13. What is the Country, but a sandy desart at one season or a swallowing quagmire at another?
1852. M. Arnold, The Future, 16. Whether he first sees light Where the river … winds through the plain: Whether in sound of the swallowing sea.
