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swamp out

 - 3 dictionary results

swamp

  [swomp]
Use swamp out in a Sentence
–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
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Word Origin & History

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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Science Dictionary
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. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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