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Synonyms

swamp

American  
[swomp] / swɒmp /

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 byout ).

  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 British  
/ swɒmp /

noun

    1. permanently waterlogged ground that is usually overgrown and sometimes partly forested Compare marsh

    2. ( as modifier )

      swamp fever
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
swamp Scientific  
/ swŏmp /

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

Other Word Forms

  • swampish adjective
  • swampless adjective
  • swampy adjective
  • underswamp noun

Etymology

Origin of swamp

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

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.