[syn: deluge, flood, inundate, swamp]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Swamp \Swamp\, v. i.
1. To sink or stick in a swamp; figuratively, to become
involved in insuperable difficulties.
[1913 Webster]
2. To become filled with water, as a boat; to founder; to
capsize or sink; figuratively, to be ruined; to be
wrecked.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Swamp \Swamp\, n. [Cf. AS. swam a fungus, OD. swam a sponge, D.
zwam a fungus, G. schwamm a sponge, Icel. sv["o]ppr, Dan. &
Sw. swamp, Goth. swamms, Gr. somfo`s porous, spongy.]
Wet, spongy land; soft, low ground saturated with water, but
not usually covered with it; marshy ground away from the
seashore.
[1913 Webster]
Gray swamps and pools, waste places of the hern.
--Tennyson.
[1913 Webster]
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).
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Swamp \Swamp\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Swamped; p. pr. & vb. n.
Swamping.]
1. To plunge or sink into a swamp.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Naut.) To cause (a boat) to become filled with water; to
capsize or sink by whelming with water.
[1913 Webster]
3. Fig.: To plunge into difficulties and perils; to
overwhelm; to ruin; to wreck.
[1913 Webster]
The Whig majority of the house of Lords was swamped
by the creation of twelve Tory peers. --J. R. Green.
[1913 Webster]
Having swamped himself in following the ignis fatuus
of a theory. --Sir W.
Hamilton.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
swamp
n 1: low land that is seasonally flooded; has more woody plants
than a marsh and better drainage than a bog [syn: swamp,
swampland]
2: a situation fraught with difficulties and imponderables; "he
was trapped in a medical swamp"
v 1: drench or submerge or be drenched or submerged; "The
tsunami swamped every boat in the harbor" [syn: swamp,
drench]
2: fill quickly beyond capacity; as with a liquid; "the basement
was inundated after the storm"; "The images flooded his mind"
[syn: deluge, flood, inundate, swamp]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
137 Moby Thesaurus words for "swamp":
baygall, be prodigal with, bind, bog, bottom, bottomland, bottoms,
buffalo wallow, cascade, cataract, cesspool, cloaca, cloaca maxima,
clutch, complication, crunch, deluge, dip, drain, drown, duck,
dump, dunk, embarrassing position, embarrassment, engulf,
everglade, fen, fenland, fine how-do-you-do, float, flood,
flood the market, flow on, founder, garbage dump, glade,
hell to pay, hobble, hog wallow, holm, hot water, how-do-you-do,
imbroglio, immerse, inundate, jam, marais, marish, marsh,
marshland, meadow, mere, mess, mire, mix, moor, moorland, morass,
moss, mud, mud flat, overbrim, overburden, overcome, overdose,
overequip, overflow, overfurnish, overlavish, overload,
overprovender, overprovide, overprovision, overrun, oversell,
overstock, oversupply, overtax, overwhelm, parlous straits, pass,
peat bog, pickle, pinch, plight, pour on, pour out, pour over,
predicament, pretty pass, pretty pickle, pretty predicament,
purgatory, quag, quagmire, quicksand, rain, run over, salt marsh,
scrape, scuttle, septic tank, sewer, shaking, sink, slob land,
slop, slosh, slough, sluice, snow under, sough, spill, spill out,
spill over, spot, squeeze, stew, sticky wicket, strait, straits,
submerge, sump, swale, swampland, sweep, taiga, tight spot,
tight squeeze, tightrope, tricky spot, unholy mess, view, wallow,
wash, whelm