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Swamp   /swɑmp/  /swɔmp/   Listen
noun
Swamp  n.  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." "A swamp differs from a bog and a marsh in producing trees and shrubs, while the latter produce only herbage, plants, and mosses."
Swamp blackbird. (Zool.) See Redwing (b).
Swamp cabbage (Bot.), skunk cabbage.
Swamp deer (Zool.), an Asiatic deer (Rucervus Duvaucelli) of India.
Swamp hen. (Zool.)
(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 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. (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 (Quercus bicolor), swamp post oak (Quercus lyrata).
Swamp ore (Min.), bog ore; limonite.
Swamp partridge (Zool.), any one of several Australian game birds of the genera Synoicus and Excalfatoria, allied to the European partridges.
Swamp robin (Zool.), the chewink.
Swamp sassafras (Bot.), 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 (Zool.), a common North American sparrow (Melospiza Georgiana, or Melospiza palustris), closely resembling the song sparrow. It lives in low, swampy places.
Swamp willow. (Bot.) See Pussy willow, under Pussy.


verb
Swamp  v. t.  (past & past part. swamped; pres. part. 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." "Having swamped himself in following the ignis fatuus of a theory."


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.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Swamp" Quotes from Famous Books



... has three families, of which two, the mallows (Malvaceae), and the lindens (Tiliaceae), include well-known species. Of the former, the various species of mallows (Fig. 106, A) belonging to the genus Malva are common, as well as some species of Hibiscus, including the showy swamp Hibiscus or rose-mallow (H. moscheutos), common in salt marshes and in the fresh-water marshes of the great lake region. The hollyhock and shrubby Althaea are familiar cultivated plants of this order, and the cotton-plant (Gossypium) also belongs here. In all of these the stamens ...
— Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany - For High Schools and Elementary College Courses • Douglas Houghton Campbell
... Ragobah was a man of gigantic build and immense physical strength. His features were heavy and forbidding. You are familiar with pictures of Nana Sahib. If I had not known this fiend to have died while beset in a swamp, I should have mistaken Ragobah for him. It was to such a being that Lona was betrothed in spite of the loathing her parents knew she felt for him. She told me all this one night at our accustomed tryst on Malabar Hill. We had chosen to meet here on account of the beauty of ...
— The Darrow Enigma • Melvin L. Severy
... is named Battle Harbor from the conflict that took place here between the Indians and English settlers, aided by a man-of-war. The remains of the fight are now in a swamp covered with fishflakes. There are also some strange epitaphs in the village graveyard, with its painted wooden head-boards, and high fence to keep the dogs out. These latter are really dangerous, making it necessary to carry a stick if walking ...
— Bowdoin Boys in Labrador • Jonathan Prince (Jr.) Cilley
... night, except when they were left, for odd numbers of minutes, at branch-places, up illimitable flights of steps, or down wells - which was the only variety of those branches - and, early in the morning, were turned out on a swamp, a mile or two from the town they sought. From this dismal spot they were rescued by a savage old postilion, who happened to be up early, kicking a horse in a fly: and so were smuggled into the town by all the back ...
— Hard Times • Charles Dickens*
... long distance round the town the ground consists of stones, turf, and swamps. The latter are mostly covered with hundreds upon hundreds of great and small mounds of firm ground. By jumping from one of these mounds to the next, the entire swamp may be crossed, not only ...
— Visit to Iceland - and the Scandinavian North • Ida Pfeiffer


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