swamp

UK: /ˈswɒmp/ US: /swɑmp/ ,(swomp)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

swamp /swɑmp/   n. [countable]

1. Ecology an area of wet, spongy land.

v. 

2. [~ + object] to flood or drench, esp. with water.
3. Nautical, Naval Terms (of a boat) to (cause to) sink or be filled with water: [no object]
   The little boat was in danger of swamping.
   [~ + object]
   The next huge wave swamped the boat.
4. to overwhelm:
   [~ + object] I was swamped with work.

swamp•y, adj., -i•er, -i•est. 

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

swamp  (swomp), n. 

1. Ecology a tract of wet, spongy land, often having a growth of certain types of trees and other vegetation, but unfit for cultivation.

v.t. 

2. to flood or drench with water or the like.
3. Nautical, Naval Terms to sink or fill (a boat) with water.
4. to plunge or cause to sink in or as if in a swamp.
5. to overwhelm, esp. to overwhelm with an excess of something:
   He swamped us with work.
6. to render helpless.
7. to remove trees and underbrush from (a specific area), esp. to make or cleave a trail (often fol. by out).
8. Agriculture, Building to trim (felled trees) into logs, as at a logging camp or sawmill.

v.i. 

9. Naval Terms to fill with water and sink, as a boat.
10. to sink or be stuck in a swamp or something likened to a swamp.
11. to be plunged into or overwhelmed with something, esp. something that keeps one busy, worried, etc.

• Dutch zwamp creek, fen; akin to sump and to Middle Low German swamp, Old Norse svǫppr sponge
• 1615–25

swamp′ish, adj. 

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

swamp / swɒmp/ noun

1. permanently waterlogged ground that is usually overgrown and sometimes partly forested
   Compare marsh

verb

1. to drench or submerge or be drenched or submerged
2. to cause (a boat) to sink or fill with water or (of a boat) to sink or fill with water
3. to overburden or overwhelm or be overburdened or overwhelmed, as by excess work or great numbers
4. (transitive) to render helpless

Etymology: 17th Century: probably from Middle Dutch somp; compare Middle High German sumpf, Old Norse svöppr sponge, Greek somphos spongy

ˈswampy adjective