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Entry 6 senses · 3 variants Webster, 1913

Swamp

/swämp/ · IPA /swɑmp/
01 n. Wet, spongy land; soft, low ground saturated with water, but not usually covered with it; marshy ground away from the seashore.
  1. 1.
    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).
Phrases & compounds
Swamp blackbird — See Redwing (b).
Swamp cabbage — skunk cabbage.
Swamp deer — an Asiatic deer (Rucervus Duvaucelli) of India.
Swamp hen — An Australian azure-breasted bird (Porphyrio bellus); -- called also goollema.
Swamp honeysuckle — an American shrub (Azalea viscosa syn. Rhododendron viscosa or Rhododendron viscosum) growing in swampy places, with fragrant flowers of a white color, or white tinged with rose; -- called also swamp pink and white swamp honeysuckle.
Swamp hook — a hook and chain used by lumbermen in handling logs. Cf. Cant hook.
Swamp itch — See Prairie itch, under Prairie.
Swamp laurel — a shrub (Kalmia glauca) having small leaves with the lower surface glaucous.
Swamp maple — red maple. See Maple.
Swamp oak — a name given to several kinds of oak which grow in swampy places, as swamp Spanish oak (Quercus palustris), swamp white oak (Quercus bicolor), swamp post oak (Quercus lyrata).
Swamp ore — bog ore; limonite.
Swamp partridge — any one of several Australian game birds of the genera Synoicus and Excalfatoria, allied to the European partridges.
Swamp robin — the chewink.
Swamp sassafras — a small North American tree of the genus Magnolia (Magnolia glauca) with aromatic leaves and fragrant creamy-white blossoms; -- called also sweet bay.
Swamp sparrow — a common North American sparrow (Melospiza Georgiana, or Melospiza palustris), closely resembling the song sparrow. It lives in low, swampy places.
Swamp willow — See Pussy willow, under Pussy.
02 v. t. To plunge or sink into a swamp.
imp. & p. p. Swamped; p. pr. & vb. n. Swamping
  1. 1.
    To plunge or sink into a swamp.
  2. 2.
    To cause (a boat) to become filled with water; to capsize or sink by whelming with water.(Naut.)
  3. 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.
03 v. i. To sink or stick in a swamp; figuratively, to become involved in insuperable difficulties.
  1. 1.
    To sink or stick in a swamp; figuratively, to become involved in insuperable difficulties.
  2. 2.
    To become filled with water, as a boat; to founder; to capsize or sink; figuratively, to be ruined; to be wrecked.