gullet

Everyday

1. The tube that food goes down from the mouth to the stomach; the oesophagus. tree →
2. The throat. tree →

In the lessons

A science and story word. In science, food goes down the gullet (oesophagus) by muscle squeezes. In Kipling's Just So Story «How the Whale got his Throat», the sailor fixes a grating in the Whale's throat, so after that the Whale can only swallow very small fish; the story is a made-up explanation, not real science.

Examples

• Food passes down the gullet to the stomach. tree →
• A fishbone got stuck in his gullet. tree →
• The pelican swallowed the fish whole down its gullet. tree →
• The Whale's throat, or gullet, was blocked by a grating in Kipling's story. tree →
• The heron gulped the frog into its gullet. tree →
• Muscles in the gullet push food down even if you are upside down. tree →
• In her youth she had once swallowed a hook, and still swam patiently about with it in her gullet. tree →

Note

Countable. The science word is «oesophagus» (UK) or «esophagus» (US). Do not confuse the gullet (food pipe) with the windpipe (trachea, for air). Real whales: baleen whales do have small throats, but not because of any grating — Kipling made that up.

In Jewish tradition

In Sefer Yetzirah the gullet is the body part made by the letter Tzaddi, linked with taste, with Aquarius and with the month Shevat.

Interpretation. The book ties each letter to a sense, a month, a sign of the zodiac and an organ. This shows its idea that the world, time and the body share one pattern.

Examples

• He produced Tzaddi, predominant in Taste, crowned it, combined and formed with it Aquarius in the Year, and the gullet in Man. (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893) tree →
• He produced Tzaddi, predominant in Taste, crowned, combined, and formed Aquarius in the world, Sebat in the year, and the gullet in man. (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1887) tree →
• The twelve organs of the human body are: two hands, two feet, two kidneys, gall, small intestines, liver, gullet [39] or esophagus, stomach and milt. (Sefer Yetzirah, Kalisch 1877) tree →

Note

Countable. The science word is «oesophagus» (UK) or «esophagus» (US). Do not confuse the gullet (food pipe) with the windpipe (trachea, for air). Real whales: baleen whales do have small throats, but not because of any grating — Kipling made that up.