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



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