1
1
as in to gorge
to eat greedily or to excess
they can spend hours at the pub, drinking, chatting, and swilling
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in to drink
to swallow in liquid form
they gathered in the break room each morning to swill coffee together before the morning meeting
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of swill
Lorraine Ali,
Los Angeles Times,
16 Jan. 2026
With each new building taking care of its own runoff, and these two huge tanks behind us picking up the slack, the Gowanus Canal would be spared the putrid mix of sewage, rainwater, and gutter swill that pours into it whenever the city’s combined sewer system is overwhelmed.
—
Kim Velsey,
Curbed,
11 June 2025
Pam Kragen,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
15 Feb. 2026
Editors and influencers piled into the train-carriage narrow Ojii restaurant on the Left Bank, swilling lychee martinis and Champagne before settling in for rounds of wagyu beef, tuna tartare, tempura and — of course — sushi.
—
Miles Socha,
Footwear News,
18 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for swill
Noun
Lots of mud, mixed with blood and guts, because what’s Westeros if not a queasy swill of muck and bodily fluids?
—
Lorraine Ali,
Los Angeles Times,
16 Jan. 2026
With each new building taking care of its own runoff, and these two huge tanks behind us picking up the slack, the Gowanus Canal would be spared the putrid mix of sewage, rainwater, and gutter swill that pours into it whenever the city’s combined sewer system is overwhelmed.
—
Kim Velsey,
Curbed,
11 June 2025
Verb
Vicky Dawson is loopy and judgmental as Becca’s wine-swilling mom Nat.
—
Pam Kragen,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
15 Feb. 2026
Editors and influencers piled into the train-carriage narrow Ojii restaurant on the Left Bank, swilling lychee martinis and Champagne before settling in for rounds of wagyu beef, tuna tartare, tempura and — of course — sushi.
—
Miles Socha,
Footwear News,
18 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for swill
Recent Examples of Synonyms for swill
Noun
-
The glass caught the light first, then the lemon oil lifted before the first sip.
-
Kyle giving Lindsay a piggyback while also trying to take a sip of Loverboy is why these two will always be famous.
Noun
-
Directed by Son Jae-gon and starring Gang Dong-won, Uhm Tae-goo, and Park Ji-hyun, the film tracks a faded first-generation K-pop co-ed dance trio making a reckless attempt to stage a comeback two decades after a plagiarism scandal dissolved their careers.
-
The black goo biofilm can be cleaned off with minimal effort.
Verb
-
The turnstones gorge themselves on those eggs before continuing their journey north.
-
But gorging on pollen alone wasn’t enough to lengthen a life.
Verb
-
On Sunday, after Scotland won against Haiti in their first World Cup game, Scottish fans celebrated drinking so much beer that some Boston bars ran out.
-
In May, drinks giants Carlsberg and Diageo were among 40 organizations that signed a declaration of intent to scale regenerative agriculture across their supply chains, through a program developed by the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative platform.
Noun
-
It’s not made explicitly clear if these seemingly sympathetic kids are actually his worst bullies, but Machado-Graner’s eyes, lip twitch, and throat gulp in this short sequence tell a whole story in themselves.
-
The nervous gulp that sight triggered.
Noun
-
It was covered in a tantalizing explosion of tubes and dupes, gloops and glops: setting sprays, concealer, eyeshadow palettes, Unicorn Snot body glitter.
-
Trump’s taste is the stuff of legend, a sort of grotesque of the conventional, with his gold baroque glop and fake tans and bright-red neckties—everything gesturing toward high-end elegance but always wrong somehow, always slightly too much.
Verb
-
George, Tre Johnson and others should receive more wide-open 3-point looks when Young directs the offense, and Sarr and Davis should feast on lobs from Young in pick-and-rolls.
-
After ten years at war and ten more at sea, he is borne back to Ithaca by his gracious hosts the Phaeacians, who have feasted him and delighted in his tales.
Noun
-
David Barnett, co-founder of the New York Sign Museum and Noble Signs, told me that some of the AI slop showing up in our neighborhoods is coming from sign-makers themselves.
-
The dishonest duo got rich from their deception, but in the age of AI slop, there is a certain charm to analogue hoaxes such as these.
Cite this Entry
“Swill.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/swill. Accessed 27 Jun. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
