Library / English Dictionary

SWAMP

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Low land that is seasonally flooded; has more woody plants than a marsh and better drainage than a bog

Synonyms:

swamp; swampland

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("swamp" is a kind of...):

wetland (a low area where the land is saturated with water)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "swamp"):

slough (a stagnant swamp (especially as part of a bayou))

Instance hyponyms:

Everglades (a large subtropical swamp in southern Florida that is noted for its wildlife)

Okefenokee Swamp (a large swampy area of northeast Florida and southeast Georgia)

Derivation:

swamp (drench or submerge or be drenched or submerged)

swampy ((of soil) soft and watery)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A situation fraught with difficulties and imponderables

Example:

he was trapped in a medical swamp

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("swamp" is a kind of...):

situation (a complex or critical or unusual difficulty)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Fill quickly beyond capacity; as with a liquid

Example:

The images flooded his mind

Synonyms:

deluge; flood; inundate; swamp

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "swamp" is one way to...):

fill; fill up; make full (make full, also in a metaphorical sense)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something with something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Drench or submerge or be drenched or submerged

Example:

The tsunami swamped every boat in the harbor

Synonyms:

drench; swamp

Classified under:

Verbs of raining, snowing, thawing, thundering

Hypernyms (to "swamp" is one way to...):

flood (cover with liquid, usually water)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something ----s something

Derivation:

swamp (low land that is seasonally flooded; has more woody plants than a marsh and better drainage than a bog)

Credits

 Context examples: 

This rebound swamped the acceleration caused by the warming climate and made the rate of sea level rise higher in the mid- and late 1990s than it otherwise would have been.

(Volcanic eruption masked acceleration in sea level rise, NSF)

Threatened social interest species include a number of stingless bees (known locally as uruçu, mandaçaia, and jandaíra), swamp ghost crabs, blue land crabs, a freshwater shrimp locally known as pitu, mangrove root crabs, catfish, yellowmouth groupers, jewfish, hammerhead sharks, among others.

(Over 300 animal species threatened in Bahia, Agência Brasil)

But what do you want in the swamp?

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“We mustn't mind if we swamp her now. If we can't get ashore, all's up.”

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

We were in imminent danger of being swamped by the whitecaps.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Phosphine is among the stinkiest, most toxic gases on Earth, found in some of the foulest of places, including penguin dung heaps, the depths of swamps and bogs, and even in the bowels of some badgers and fish.

(Poisonous Earthly Molecule May Be Sign of Extraterrestrial Life, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

And now it is deluged with a nectarous flood—the young germs swamped—delicious poison cankering them: now I see myself stretched on an ottoman in the drawing-room at Vale Hall at my bride Rosamond Oliver's feet: she is talking to me with her sweet voice—gazing down on me with those eyes your skilful hand has copied so well—smiling at me with these coral lips.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The creature, whatever it was, had crossed the swamp and had passed on into the forest.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Two little rivers, or rather two swamps, emptied out into this pond, as you might call it; and the foliage round that part of the shore had a kind of poisonous brightness.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Then the boat emerged, half swamped, Leach flinging the water out and Johnson clinging to the steering-oar, his face white and anxious.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)