to gulp, to swallow hard
Quando o chefe chamou ele na sala, ele engoliu em seco.
When the boss called him into the office, he swallowed hard.
The expression describes a real physical gesture: faced with fear, tension or a suppressed impulse, the mouth becomes dry and a person swallows "dry," with nothing to swallow but their own saliva. The verb engolir comes from Latin and is related to gula ("throat").
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