swamp

[ swomp ]

/ swɒmp /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR swamp ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

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)

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.

verb (used without object)

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.

Nearby words

Origin of swamp

1615–25; < Dutch zwamp creek, fen; akin to sump and to Middle Low German swamp, Old Norse svǫppr sponge

Related formsswamp·ish, adjectiveun·der·swamp, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for swamped

No one in Washington listened, and Sequoyah was swamped by the establishment of Oklahoma in 1907.
One U.S. Constitution Just Wasn’t Enough|Tom Arnold-Forster|July 4, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The Daily Pic: In 1913, New Yorker Robert Winthrop Chandler was a successful radical, until he got swamped by Matisse and Duchamp.
Painting, Red in Tooth and Claw|Blake Gopnik|November 8, 2013|DAILY BEAST
The couple were swamped with phone-waving well-wishers and extra police had to be called in at one stage as numbers swelled.
Windsor Love Fest As Will and Kate Meet Barbara on London Bus|Tom Sykes|November 7, 2013|DAILY BEAST
But in the past decade the city of less than 60,000 inhabitants has been swamped with over 20 million visitors each year.
The Big Idea: How Tourism Can Destroy the Places We Love|Elizabeth Becker|July 5, 2013|DAILY BEAST

Howard Kurtz talks to Michael Steele about the decision that swamped the convention.
Michael Steele Calls Critics of His Choice of Tampa for GOP Convention ‘Stupid’|Howard Kurtz|August 27, 2012|DAILY BEAST
Herbert Spencer would have been swamped in a family, and the same with George Eliot.
Cupid's Middleman|Edward B. Lent
She was very angry, so that for the moment her embarrassment was swamped.
Mavericks|William MacLeod Raine
Otherwise it wouldn't make any difference who I was, as one more misery don't matter when you're swamped in miserableness.
Mary Cary|Kate Langley Bosher
To beat out her timbers upon the harbor reef, or be swamped beneath the bows of a warship!
The Pursuit|Frank (Frank Mackenzie) Savile
Had this not been done, the canoe would inevitably have been swamped.
Great African Travellers|W.H.G. Kingston

British Dictionary definitions for swamped

swamp

/ (swɒmp) /

noun

permanently waterlogged ground that is usually overgrown and sometimes partly forestedCompare marsh
(as modifier)swamp fever

verb

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 numberswe 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

Derived Formsswampish, adjectiveswampless, adjectiveswampy, adjective

Word Origin for swamp

C17: probably from Middle Dutch somp; compare Middle High German sumpf, Old Norse svöppr sponge, Greek somphos spongy

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

Word Origin and History for swamped

swamp

1624 (first used by Capt. John Smith, in reference to Virginia), perhaps a dialectal survival from an Old English cognate of Old Norse svoppr "sponge, fungus," from Proto-Germanic *swampuz; but traditionally connected with Middle English sompe "morass, swamp," probably from Middle Dutch somp or Middle Low German sump "swamp." Related to Old Norse svöppr "sponge." Swamp Yankee "rural, rustic New Englander" is attested from 1941.