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8 dictionary results for: swamp
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
swamp       [swomp] Pronunciation Key
–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)
2.to flood or drench with water or the like.
3.Nautical. to sink or fill (a boat) with water.
4.to plunge or cause to sink in or as if in a swamp.
5.to overwhelm, esp. to overwhelm with an excess of something: He swamped us with work.
6.to render helpless.
7.to remove trees and underbrush from (a specific area), esp. to make or cleave a trail (often fol. by out).
8.to trim (felled trees) into logs, as at a logging camp or sawmill.
–verb (used without object)
9.to fill with water and sink, as a boat.
10.to sink or be stuck in a swamp or something likened to a swamp.
11.to be plunged into or overwhelmed with something, esp. something that keeps one busy, worried, etc.
[Origin: 1615–25; < D zwamp creek, fen; akin to sump and to MLG swamp, ON svǫppr sponge]

—Related forms
swampish, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
swamp       (swŏmp, swômp)  Pronunciation Key 
n.  
    1. A seasonally flooded bottomland with more woody plants than a marsh and better drainage than a bog.
    2. A lowland region saturated with water.
  2. A situation or place fraught with difficulties and imponderables: a financial swamp.

v.   swamped, swamp·ing, swamps

v.   tr.
  1. To drench in or cover with or as if with water.
  2. To inundate or burden; overwhelm: She was swamped with work.
  3. Nautical To fill (a ship or boat) with water to the point of sinking it.

v.   intr.
To become full of water or sink.


[Perhaps of Low German origin .]

swamp'i·ness n., swamp'y adj.
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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
swamp 
1624 (first used by Capt. John Smith, in reference to Virginia), perhaps a dial. survival from an O.E. cognate of O.N. svoppr "sponge, fungus," from P.Gmc. *swampuz; but traditionally connected with M.E. sompe "morass, swamp," probably from M.Du. somp or M.L.G. sump "swamp." Related to O.N. svöppr "sponge." The verb sense of "overwhelm, sink (as if in a swamp)" is first recorded 1772; fig. sense is from 1818. Swamp Yankee "rural, rustic New Englander" is attested from 1941.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
swamp

noun
1. low land that is seasonally flooded; has more woody plants than a marsh and better drainage than a bog 
2. a situation fraught with difficulties and imponderables; "he was trapped in a medical swamp" 

verb
1. drench or submerge or be drenched or submerged; "The tsunami swamped every boat in the harbor" 
2. fill quickly beyond capacity; as with a liquid; "the basement was inundated after the storm"; "The images flooded his mind" [syn: deluge] 

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
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The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
swamp       (swŏmp)  Pronunciation Key 
An area of low-lying wet or seasonally flooded land, often having trees and dense shrubs or thickets.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Swamp

Swamp\, n. [Cf. AS. swam a fungus, OD. swam a sponge, D. zwam a fungus, G. schwamm a sponge, Icel. sv["o]ppr, Dan. & Sw. swamp, Goth. swamms, Gr. somfo`s porous, spongy.] 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. (Zo["o]l.) See Redwing (b) .

Swamp cabbage (Bot.), skunk cabbage.

Swamp deer (Zo["o]l.), an Asiatic deer (Rucervus Duvaucelli) of India.

Swamp hen. (Zo["o]l.) (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.), bog ore; limonite.

Swamp partridge (Zo["o]l.), any one of several Australian game birds of the genera Synoicus and Excalfatoria, allied to the European partridges.

Swamp robin (Zo["o]l.), 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 (Zo["o]l.), 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.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Swamp

Swamp\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Swamped; p. pr. & vb. n. Swamping.]

1. To plunge or sink into a swamp.

2. (Naut.) 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.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Swamp

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.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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