swamp Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun low land that is seasonally flooded; has more woody plants than a marsh and better drainage than a bog
    swampland.
  2. noun a situation fraught with difficulties and imponderables
    • he was trapped in a medical swamp
  3. verb drench or submerge or be drenched or submerged
    drench.
    • The tsunami swamped every boat in the harbor
  4. verb fill quickly beyond capacity; as with a liquid
    flood; inundate; deluge.
    • the basement was inundated after the storm
    • The images flooded his mind

WordNet

Swamp noun
Etymology
Cf. AS. swam a fungus, OD. swam a sponge, D. zwam a fungus, G. schwamm a sponge, Icel. svöppr, Dan. & Sw. swamp, Goth. swamms, Gr. somfo`s porous, spongy.
Definitions
  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).
Swamp transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Swamped ; present participle & verbal noun Swamping
Definitions
  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. J. R. Green.
    Having swamped himself in following the ignis fatuus of a theory. Sir W. Hamilton.
Swamp intransitive verb
Definitions
  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.

Webster 1913