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.

Common collocations

• swamp fever Noun + noun

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...

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images