# swamp

Pronunciation: US say "SWAHMP" /swɑmp/; UK say "SWOMP" /swɒmp/

## Noun

1. An area of soft, water-saturated land, often wooded, that is generally a rich habitat for certain plants and animals but poorly suited to many kinds of farming; a type of wetland.
   - Simple: An area of soft, wet land, often with trees, that is full of wildlife but hard to farm.
   - _Cypress trees rose from the black water of the swamp, draped in moss._
   - _Early settlers drained many of the region's swamps to make room for farms._
4. The corruption, cronyism, inefficiency, and entrenched interests alleged to pervade the US federal government, especially in Washington, DC. *(US)*
   - Simple: The corruption, favors for friends, waste, and powerful insiders that some say fill the US government, especially in Washington.
   - _Outsider candidates in both parties campaign against the swamp, promising to clean up Washington._
   - _Critics complained that the new appointees were creatures of the very swamp they had vowed to drain._
5. A foul place or situation, or one in which progress is difficult.
   - Simple: A nasty place or situation, or one where it is very hard to make progress.
   - _The negotiations sank into a swamp of procedural objections and petty disputes._
   - _The back streets near the docks were a swamp of crime and squalor._

## Verb

2. To overwhelm someone or something, as by making them too busy or by overrunning their capacity.
   - Simple: To be too much for someone, or to give them more than they can handle.
   - _After the ad aired, viewers swamped the station's phone lines._
   - _A sudden rush of patients can swamp a small emergency room._
3. To drench something or fill it with water, as when waves pour into a boat.
   - Simple: To fill something with water or make it very wet.
   - _Waves broke over the bow and swamped the dinghy before they could bail._
   - _Storms like this regularly swamp the low-lying streets near the harbor._
6. To plunge someone or something into difficulties and danger, or to overwhelm and ruin them.
   - Simple: To get someone into serious trouble, or to ruin or wreck them.
   - _A wave of unpaid loans threatened to swamp the small bank entirely._
   - _He swamped himself in lawsuits he could never hope to win._
7. To clear a road or area of brush, especially to open a path that lets loggers reach the trees. *(dialectal, Appalachia)*
   - Simple: To clear bushes and branches from a road or area, especially so loggers can reach the trees.
   - _Before the teams could haul a single log, the crew had to swamp a road through the laurel thickets._
   - _He swamped skid roads for a lumber outfit in West Virginia the summer he turned sixteen._

## Origin

First recorded in North America from 1624, though probably used locally in Britain earlier. Its origin is not entirely certain: it is probably a blend of Middle English swam ("swamp, bog"; also "fungus"), from Old English swamm ("mushroom, sponge"), and Middle English sompe ("marsh"), from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German sump; alternatively it may be borrowed from Dutch zwamp ("swamp, marsh"). It is related to German Sumpf ("swamp"), German Schwamm ("sponge, fungus"), and English sump and swim.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/swamp (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).