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.
Swamp (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Swamped (?);
p. pr. & vb. n.
Swamping.]
1. To plunge or sink into a swamp.
2. (Naut.)
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 (?), n. [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.]
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.), bog 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.
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