Other forms: gulping, gulps, gulped
To gulp is to swallow quickly in big mouthfuls — water after running, tea when you are late, air when you surface. It is a sound word as much as an action word, and the word itself does most of the work.
There is a second use that has nothing to do with drinking: to gulp is to swallow hard from fear or emotion, and it is one of the standard gestures in written fiction. He gulped and knocked on the door. The noun is common in both senses — a gulp of water, a nervous gulp — and gulp down is the usual phrasal form for drinking fast. Compare sip, which is its exact opposite, and swallow, which is neutral.
1verbgulpTo swallow quickly in large mouthfuls.
“He gulped his tea and ran for the bus.”
synonyms: swig, guzzle
2verbhardTo swallow hard because of fear or emotion.
“She gulped and opened the letter.”
3nounactA large mouthful, or the act of swallowing one.
“He took a gulp of air and went under again.”
gulp is a way of swallowing.
Middle English gulpen came from Middle Dutch gulpen, and it is one of a small family of words that seem to have been made from the noise: gulp, gasp, gargle. Nobody borrowed it for its meaning; they borrowed it because it sounds like the thing.
Middle Dutch
gulpen
Middle English
gulpen
English, today
gulp
Built from
From Middle English gulpen, probably from vls - or Middle Dutch gulpen, golpen, of unknown origin. Perhaps of imitative of the sound origin, or related to Dutch galpen (“to roar, squeal”), English galp, gaup (“to gape”). Related to German Low German gulpen (“to gush out, belch, gulp”), West Frisian gjalpe, gjalpje, gjealpje (“to gush, spurt forth”), Danish gulpe, gylpe (“to gulp up, disgorge”), dialectal Swedish glapa (“to gulp down”), Old English galpettan (“to gulp down, eat greedily, devour”). More at galp.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Everyday Verbs, Body Language & Gestures