swamp

[ swomp ]

noun

1. a tract of wet, spongy land, often having a growth of certain types of trees and other vegetation, but unfit for cultivation.

verb (used with object)

1. to flood or drench with water or the like.
2. Nautical. to sink or fill (a boat) with water.
3. to plunge or cause to sink in or as if in a swamp.
4. to overwhelm, especially to overwhelm with an excess of something:

   He swamped us with work.

5. to render helpless.
6. to remove trees and underbrush from (a specific area), especially to make or cleave a trail (often followed by out ).
7. to trim (felled trees) into logs, as at a logging camp or sawmill.

verb (used without object)

1. to fill with water and sink, as a boat.
2. to sink or be stuck in a swamp or something likened to a swamp.
3. to be plunged into or overwhelmed with something, especially something that keeps one busy, worried, etc.

swamp

/ swɒmp /

noun

1. 1. permanently waterlogged ground that is usually overgrown and sometimes partly forested Compare marsh
   2. ( as modifier )

      swamp fever

verb

1. to drench or submerge or be drenched or submerged
2. nautical to cause (a boat) to sink or fill with water or (of a boat) to sink or fill with water
3. to overburden or overwhelm or be overburdened or overwhelmed, as by excess work or great numbers

   we have been swamped with applications

4. to sink or stick or cause to sink or stick in or as if in a swamp
5. tr to render helpless

swamp

/ swŏmp /

1. An area of low-lying wet or seasonally flooded land, often having trees and dense shrubs or thickets.

Derived Forms

• ˈswampy, adjective
• ˈswampish, adjective
• ˈswampless, adjective

Other Words From

• swamp·ish adjective
• un·der·swamp noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of swamp¹

First recorded in 1615–25; from Dutch zwamp “creek, fen”; akin to sump and to Middle Low German swamp, Old Norse svǫppr “sponge”

Word History and Origins

Origin of swamp¹

C17: probably from Middle Dutch somp; compare Middle High German sumpf, Old Norse svöppr sponge, Greek somphos spongy

Example Sentences

Without any evidence or provocation, she attacks Swamp Thing—and then gets beaten in the only fight she has in the issue.

From The Daily Beast

Electric Swamp Blues How can you possibly find authentic swamp blues in Portland, Oregon?

From The Daily Beast

Klain is not the first to crawl out of the swamp of Biden World on to the larger stage.

From The Daily Beast

When the pioneers reached Toledo it was called “Frogtown” because the place was a swamp.

From The Daily Beast

Yeager took the photo while balancing on a raft in a muddy Jamaican swamp.

From The Daily Beast

A native brought news that a collector and his wife were hiding in a swamp near the road.

From Project Gutenberg

Two companies deployed over a swamp and went along the beach under cover of the Utah Battery.

From Project Gutenberg

The swamp is more easily accessible from Virginia than from North Carolina.

From Project Gutenberg

In the campaign in Holland last war, a party marching through a swamp, was ordered to form two deep.

From Project Gutenberg

The road was a bullock track, a swamp of mud amid the larger swamp of the ploughed land and jungle.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• bog
• marshland
• morass
• mud
• quagmire