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When talking about not letting one's 'ego' prevent oneself from helping his enemies:

He __ his ego and helped his enemies.

Would "swallow", "hide", "put down", "lay down" work there?

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Needs more context. Doing something to one's ego depends on why he was helping his enemies. Is he doing it as subterfuge, or has he switched sides? Is he ashamed or is he just opportunistic? – Mitch Feb 1 at 22:50
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Without any extra context, I'd suggest "suppressed". Depending on the context, I might also suggest "rivals" instead of "enemies". – Hellion Feb 1 at 23:10
Welcome to El&U. This is off topic (writing advice). Might be on topic at writers.se but check the faq there. Thanks. – MετάEd Feb 1 at 23:15
Before answering, would you consider another word instead of ego - because I think "pride" may be a good choice of words to fit the example sentence: "He swallowed his pride and helped his enemies." – Kristina Lopez Feb 1 at 23:21
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What MετάEd and Kristina said. There's no "correct" answer that we can provide on ELU, because native speakers wouldn't normally try to use the word "ego" at all in such contexts. As such, it's just an Off Topic request for help with "creative writing". – FumbleFingers Feb 1 at 23:40
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closed as off topic by MετάEd, Gnawme, FumbleFingers, Robusto, simchona♦ Feb 2 at 1:52

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2 Answers

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I agree with what the others have said; we'd normally say pride instead of ego.

But back to your main question: Which verbs to use? Swallow is fine, but, before I used hid, put down, or lay down, I might use shelved:

He shelved his ego [or pride] and helped with the chores.

This word might even make an embedded pun, if any of those chores happened to be in the kitchen or garage.

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When I composed my answer, the question read "house chores", not "enemies". (Apparently, an edit has been rolled back.) – J.R. Feb 2 at 2:15
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I don't regard any of swallow, hide, or lay down as suitable in the context of “He __ his ego and helped his enemies”. Put down is usable, although unlikely to be used. Instead consider suppressed, as suggested in a comment, or more preferably, use overcame.

Note, swallow is used in the phrase “swallow his pride”, a phrase that is more or less equivalent to “overcame his ego”.

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Personally, I don't regard ego as suitable in OP's context to begin with. As Kristina comments, and as you imply, swallowed his pride is what native speakers would normally say. – FumbleFingers Feb 1 at 23:37