gulping

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of gulp.

   She kept gulping air as she surfaced from the cold pool.

   Gulping nervously, he stepped up to the microphone.

   Note

   One -ing form carries both halves of the verb. It can mean the eager swallow, as in gulping down water or air, or the nervous reflex, as in gulping before a speech. The words around it usually tell you which: an object or down points to drinking, while an adverb like nervously points to fear. Used as a gerund, it sits close to the countable noun, which can take a plural.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of swallowing food, drink, or air quickly and in large mouthfuls.

   His nervous gulping gave away just how frightened he really was.

   Doctors noticed the patient's rapid gulping during the swallowing test.

   Similarswallowing

   Note

   This noun goes back to Middle English, where it was spelled gulpinge or golping. Unlike a gerund, it can be counted and made plural, so a meal can be full of gulpings, each one heard as well as done. Melvin Jules Bukiet's Stories of an imaginary childhood (2002) pairs it with munchings, its natural partner when the sounds of eating interrupt something else.

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