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 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

/ 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

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

Other Word Forms

• swampy adjective
• swampish adjective
• swampless adjective
• underswamp 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

Letters poured into Coca-Cola headquarters by the thousands, and the phone lines swamped; a psychiatrist brought in to listen reported hearing people mourn as if a relative had died.

From Salon

Horton often push back the organic chaos of a subtropical swamp in favor of paver-stone patios and endless miles of St. Augustine grass.

From Salon

For guitars, he favors swamp ash for the body — “not too dense, not too thin” — and curly maple for the necks.

From Los Angeles Times

While not inappropriate to a story in which fictions swamp facts, these zigs and zags can pull you out of the story rather than drawing you deeper in.

From Los Angeles Times

I imagine the detainees in Alligator Alcatraz without adequate shelter or air conditioning in the middle of hurricane season in a South Florida swamp.

From Salon

Related Words

• beset 
• besiege 
• drench 
• drown 
• engulf 
• inundate 
• overcrowd 
• overflow 
• overload 
• saturate 
• sink 
• submerge 
• wash