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gullet

[guhl-it]
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noun
  1. the esophagus.
  2. the throat or pharynx.
  3. a channel for water.
  4. a gully or ravine.
  5. a preparatory cut in an excavation.
  6. a concavity between two sawteeth, joining them at their bases.
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verb (used with object)
  1. to form a concavity at the base of (a sawtooth).
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Origin of gullet

1350–1400; Middle English golet < Old French goulet ≪ Latin gula throat; see -et
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

throatcrawmawesophagus

Examples from the Web for gullet

Historical Examples

  • When I ask a fellow: 'Old man, what do you want to wet your gullet?'

    A Nest of Spies

    Pierre Souvestre

  • But this I know—that if you intend us treachery you shall have my knife in your gullet for your pains.

    The Shame of Motley

    Raphael Sabatini

  • Well, suppose they did squeeze his gullet up there on a scaffold!

    Mayflower (Flor de mayo)

    Vicente Blasco Ibez

  • The only thing that sticks in my gullet is that fifty per cent.

    The Trail of '98

    Robert W. Service

  • But it soon became certain that there was no egress from this gullet.

British Dictionary definitions for gullet

gullet

noun
  1. a less formal name for the oesophagus Related adjective: oesophageal
  2. the throat or pharynx
  3. mining quarrying a preliminary cut in excavating, wide enough to take the vehicle that removes the earth
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Word Origin

C14: from Old French goulet, diminutive of goule throat, from Latin gula throat
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for gullet

n.

c.1300 (as a surname), from Old French golet "neck (of a bottle); gutter; bay, creek," diminutive of gole "throat, neck" (Modern French guele), from Latin gula "throat," also "appetite," from PIE root *gwele- "swallow" (cf. Latin gluttire "to gulp down, devour," Old English ceole "throat," Old Church Slavonic glutu "gullet," Old Irish gelim "I devour").

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
gullet in Medicine

gullet

(gŭl′ĭt)
n.
  1. The esophagus.
  2. The throat.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.