swamp
a tract of wet, spongy land, often having a growth of certain types of trees and other vegetation, but unfit for cultivation.
to flood or drench with water or the like.
Nautical. to sink or fill (a boat) with water.
to plunge or cause to sink in or as if in a swamp.
to overwhelm, especially to overwhelm with an excess of something: He swamped us with work.
to render helpless.
to remove trees and underbrush from (a specific area), especially to make or cleave a trail (often followed by out).
to trim (felled trees) into logs, as at a logging camp or sawmill.
to fill with water and sink, as a boat.
to sink or be stuck in a swamp or something likened to a swamp.
to be plunged into or overwhelmed with something, especially something that keeps one busy, worried, etc.
Origin of swamp
1Other words from swamp
- swamp·ish, adjective
- un·der·swamp, noun
Words Nearby swamp
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use swamp in a sentence
Let the friendly hosts, who live on-site, cook you a meal, set you up with fishing gear, or point you to the best local seafood markets and swamp tours.
They live in the moist and muddy soil of wetlands, swamps, and bogs, and their tunnels can be nearly anywhere in a complex overgrown wilderness.
How to hunt for star-nosed moles (and their holes) | Kenneth Catania | September 15, 2020 | Popular-ScienceAnaerobic bacteria produce it in places such as sewage, swamps, marshlands, and rice fields, and in the intestines of most animals.
Gas spotted in Venus’s clouds could be a sign of alien life | Neel Patel | September 14, 2020 | MIT Technology ReviewAnaerobic microbes living in such places as sewage, swamps and the intestinal tracts of animals from penguins to people are the only known life-forms on Earth that produce the molecule.
Phosphine gas found in Venus’ atmosphere may be ‘a possible sign of life’ | Lisa Grossman | September 14, 2020 | Science NewsIn some ways, it would be easier to just not care, to be one of those people who see no difference among a park, a swamp and the rim of an active volcano, to be one of those people who is mentally living six months ago.
Every Decision Is A Risk. Every Risk Is A Decision. | Maggie Koerth (maggie.koerth-baker@fivethirtyeight.com) | July 21, 2020 | FiveThirtyEight
Without any evidence or provocation, she attacks swamp Thing—and then gets beaten in the only fight she has in the issue.
Electric swamp Blues How can you possibly find authentic swamp blues in Portland, Oregon?
Klain is not the first to crawl out of the swamp of Biden World on to the larger stage.
Where There’s Trouble, You’ll Usually Find Joe Biden | Lloyd Green | October 21, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTWhen the pioneers reached Toledo it was called “Frogtown” because the place was a swamp.
Yeager took the photo while balancing on a raft in a muddy Jamaican swamp.
A native brought news that a collector and his wife were hiding in a swamp near the road.
The Red Year | Louis TracyTwo companies deployed over a swamp and went along the beach under cover of the Utah Battery.
The Philippine Islands | John ForemanThe swamp is more easily accessible from Virginia than from North Carolina.
Hallowed Heritage: The Life of Virginia | Dorothy M. TorpeyIn the campaign in Holland last war, a party marching through a swamp, was ordered to form two deep.
The Book of Anecdotes and Budget of Fun; | VariousThe road was a bullock track, a swamp of mud amid the larger swamp of the ploughed land and jungle.
The Red Year | Louis Tracy
British Dictionary definitions for swamp
/ (swɒmp) /
permanently waterlogged ground that is usually overgrown and sometimes partly forested: Compare marsh
(as modifier): swamp fever
to drench or submerge or be drenched or submerged
nautical to cause (a boat) to sink or fill with water or (of a boat) to sink or fill with water
to overburden or overwhelm or be overburdened or overwhelmed, as by excess work or great numbers: we have been swamped with applications
to sink or stick or cause to sink or stick in or as if in a swamp
(tr) to render helpless
Origin of swamp
1Derived forms of swamp
- swampish, adjective
- swampless, adjective
- swampy, adjective
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
Scientific definitions for swamp
[ swŏmp ]
An area of low-lying wet or seasonally flooded land, often having trees and dense shrubs or thickets.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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