Category:Swamp

Swamp, n. Etym: [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.]

Defn: 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 blackbird. (zoöl.) See redwing (b). -- swamp cabbage (bot.), skunk cabbage. -- swamp deer (zoöl.), an asiatic deer (rucervus duvaucelli) of India. -- swamp hen. (zoöl.) (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, or Rhododendron, viscosa) growing in swampy places, with fragrant Flowers of a white color, or white tinged with rose; -- called also Swamp pink. -- 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 (q. bicolor), swamp post oak (q. lyrata). -- swamp ore (min.), big ore; limonite. -- swamp partridge (zoöl.), any one of several australian game birds Of the genera synoicus and excalfatoria, allied to the european Partridges. -- swamp robin (zoöl.), the chewink. -- swamp sassafras (bot.), a small north american tree of the genus Magnolia (m. glauca) with aromatic leaves and fragrant creamy-white Blossoms; -- called also sweet bay. -- swamp sparrow (zoöl.), a common north american sparrow (melospiza Georgiana, or m. palustris), closely resembling the song sparrow. It Lives in low, swampy places. -- swamp willow. (bot.) See pussy willow, under pussy.

Swamp Swamp, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Swamped; p. pr. & vb. n. Swamping.]

1. To plunge or sink into a swamp.

2. (naut.)

Defn: 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 Swamp, v. i.

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.