swamp

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a situation fraught with difficulties and imponderables

   I was trapped in a medical swamp.

2. 2
   verb

   drench or submerge or be drenched or submerged

   The tsunami swamped every boat in the harbor.

3. 3
   noun

   An area of wet (water-saturated), spongy (soft) land, often with trees, generally a rich ecosystem for certain plants and animals but ill-suited for many agricultural purposes. (A type of wetland. Compare marsh, bog, fen.)

   Some small Marshes and Swamps there are, but more profitable than hurtfull.

4. 4
   noun

   A place or situation that is foul or where progress is difficult.

   We two...in this swamp of iniquity...together we can bring redress to an unjust world.

Early attestations (starting in 1624) are from North America, but the term was probably in local use in Britain earlier. The etymology is not entirely certain; it is probably a fusion of Middle English swam (“swamp, muddy pool, bog, marsh”, also “fungus, mushroom”) — from Old English swamm (“mushroom, fungus, sponge”), from Proto-West Germanic *swamm, from Proto-Germanic *swambaz, *swammaz — and Middle English sompe (“marsh, morass”), from either Middle Dutch somp, sump (“marsh, swamp”) or Middle Low German sump (“marsh, swamp”) (from Old Saxon *sump (“swamp, marsh”)), both from Proto-West Ger...

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