gulps

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of gulp.

   He gulps the last of his soda before the movie starts.

   Whenever she is nervous, she gulps audibly before speaking.

   Note

   Two quite different swallows share this form. In the eager one, someone takes something down fast or in large draughts, and the verb names what is swallowed: he gulps his soda. In the nervous one, the swallow is a reaction, and the verb usually takes no object: she gulps before speaking. Context, and whether anything follows the verb, tells the reader which is meant.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of gulp.

   After the climb, he drew long gulps of cool mountain air.

   The bitter medicine went down in two reluctant gulps.

   Note

   The plural covers both things a gulp can be: the amount taken down in one swallow (long gulps of air, two gulps of medicine) and the sound of swallowing, often a nervous one. A rare technical use counts gulps as small, unspecified clusters of bytes, often two. The same spelling also serves the present-tense verb, so "two gulps" is a noun and "she gulps" is a verb.

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