Coffee has initially been a food – chewed, not sipped. Early African tribes consume coffee by grinding the berries together, adding some animal fat, and rolling the treats into tiny edible energy balls.
SWAMP
swamp, swampland
(noun) low land that is seasonally flooded; has more woody plants than a marsh and better drainage than a bog
swamp
(noun) a situation fraught with difficulties and imponderables; “he was trapped in a medical swamp”
deluge, flood, inundate, swamp
(verb) fill quickly beyond capacity; as with a liquid; “the basement was inundated after the storm”; “The images flooded his mind”
swamp, drench
(verb) drench or submerge or be drenched or submerged; “The tsunami swamped every boat in the harbor”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Noun
swamp (plural swamps)
A piece of wet, spongy land; low ground saturated with water; soft, wet ground which may have a growth of certain kinds of trees, but is unfit for agricultural or pastoral purposes.
A type of wetland that stretches for vast distances, and is home to many creatures which have adapted specifically to that environment.
(figurative) A place or situation that is foul or where progress is difficult.
Verb
swamp (third-person singular simple present swamps, present participle swamping, simple past and past participle swamped)
To drench or fill with water.
To overwhelm; to make too busy, or overrun the capacity of.
(figurative) To plunge into difficulties and perils; to overwhelm; to ruin; to wreck.
• J. R. Green
• W. Hamilton
Anagrams
• wamps
Source: Wiktionary
Swamp, n. Etym: [Cf. AS. swam a fungus, OD. swam a sponge, D. zwam a fungus, G. schwamm a sponge, Icel. svöppr, Dan. & Sw. swamp, Goth. swamms, Gr. somfo`s porous, spongy.]
Definition: Wet, spongy land; soft, low ground saturated with water, but not usually covered with it; marshy ground away from the seashore. Gray swamps and pools, waste places of the hern. Tennyson. A swamp differs from a bog and a marsh in producing trees and shrubs, while the latter produce only herbage, plants, and mosses. Farming Encyc. (E. Edwards, Words). Swamp blackbird. (Zoöl.) See Redwing (b).
– Swamp cabbage (Bot.), skunk cabbage.
– Swamp deer (Zoöl.), an Asiatic deer (Rucervus Duvaucelli) of India.
– Swamp hen. (Zoöl.) (a) An Australian azure-breasted bird (Porphyrio bellus); -- called also goollema. (b) An Australian water crake, or rail (Porzana Tabuensis); -- called also little swamp hen. (c) The European purple gallinule.
– Swamp honeysuckle (Bot.), an American shrub (Azalea, or Rhododendron, viscosa) growing in swampy places, with fragrant flowers of a white color, or white tinged with rose; -- called also swamp pink.
– Swamp hook, a hook and chain used by lumbermen in handling logs. Cf. Cant hook.
– Swamp itch. (Med.) See Prairie itch, under Prairie.
– Swamp laurel (Bot.), a shrub (Kalmia glauca) having small leaves with the lower surface glaucous.
– Swamp maple (Bot.), red maple. See Maple.
– Swamp oak (Bot.), a name given to several kinds of oak which grow in swampy places, as swamp Spanish oak (Quercus palustris), swamp white oak (Q. bicolor), swamp post oak (Q. lyrata).
– Swamp ore (Min.), big ore; limonite.
– Swamp partridge (Zoöl.), any one of several Australian game birds of the genera Synoicus and Excalfatoria, allied to the European partridges.
– Swamp robin (Zoöl.), the chewink.
– Swamp sassafras (Bot.), a small North American tree of the genus Magnolia (M. glauca) with aromatic leaves and fragrant creamy-white blossoms; -- called also sweet bay.
– Swamp sparrow (Zoöl.), a common North American sparrow (Melospiza Georgiana, or M. palustris), closely resembling the song sparrow. It lives in low, swampy places.
– Swamp willow. (Bot.) See Pussy willow, under Pussy.
Swamp, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Swamped; p. pr. & vb. n. Swamping.]
1. To plunge or sink into a swamp.
2. (Naut.)
Definition: To cause (a boat) to become filled with water; to capsize or sink by whelming with water.
3. Fig.: To plunge into difficulties and perils; to overwhelm; to ruin; to wreck. The Whig majority of the house of Lords was swamped by the creation of twelve Tory peers. J. R. Green. Having swamped himself in following the ignis fatuus of a theory. Sir W. Hamilton.
Swamp, v. i.
1. To sink or stick in a swamp; figuratively, to become involved in insuperable difficulties.
2. To become filled with water, as a boat; to founder; to capsize or sink; figuratively, to be ruined; to be wrecked.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
29 April 2024
SUBDUCTION
(noun) a geological process in which one edge of a crustal plate is forced sideways and downward into the mantle below another plate
Coffee Trivia
