1
: a wetland often partially or intermittently covered with water
especially
: one dominated by woody vegetation
2
: a tract of swamp
3
: a difficult or troublesome situation or subject
swamp
adjective
swamped; swamping; swamps
1
2
: to open by removing underbrush and debris
: to become submerged
Synonyms
Examples of swamp in a Sentence
Noun
Alligators live in the lowland swamps.
be careful in the swamp, because alligators sometimes lurk there
Verb
The sea level rose and swamped the coastal villages.
The boat sank after it was swamped by waves.
Recent Examples on the Web
Luke Mogelson, The New Yorker, 8 Apr. 2024
In the music video for the track, the two Florida natives are right at home in the swamp as Doechii raps on an airboat and JT lies in mud.
—Chris Malone Mendez, Forbes, 29 Mar. 2024
Trump Has Promised to Do in a Second Term
Who is the Black man who guides Booth across the swamp?
—Chris Vognar, Rolling Stone, 19 Mar. 2024
This landscape stretched across present day Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, and Brazil and included a variety of ecosystems in its lakes and swamps.
—Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 21 Mar. 2024
The billionaire, one of the most consequential figures to walk the Earth, spent another weekend swimming in the right-wing fever swamps of X — a bad habit that was apparent when his interview with Don Lemon was released Monday morning.
—Oliver Darcy, CNN, 19 Mar. 2024
There can be no heroes in such a battle, Bondarchuk is bold enough to suggest, because the battleground itself is such a shape-shifting swamp.
—Catherine Bray, Variety, 17 Feb. 2024
No candidate illustrates this better than Trump, whose time in the fever swamps of Truth Social has left his online presence severely diminished.
—Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic, 14 Feb. 2024
The landscape — wetlands, fish and shrimp ponds fashioned out of mangrove swamp — has largely been preserved, offering a rare look at what life in this region was like before modernization in the 1980s.
—Theodora Yu, Washington Post, 26 Jan. 2024
Jenna Thompson, Kansas City Star, 27 Mar. 2024
Social media was swamped with wild ideas on Thursday about what may have been behind the outage, including an attack by a geopolitical adversary of the U.S. like China or Russia.
—Matt Novak / Gizmodo, Quartz, 23 Feb. 2024
Coach Danny Yoshikawa has also been swamped with congratulatory texts and emails from hundreds, including those from a slew of elated alums and former players, after the program’s 59-51 victory over College of the Sequoias on Sunday in Southern California.
—Joseph Dycus, The Mercury News, 20 Mar. 2024
Of that, high-income countries shipped 1.8 billion pounds to low- and middle-income countries in 2022, swamping them with dangerous materials.
—Matt Simon, WIRED, 20 Mar. 2024
But exceptionally heavy rain last summer in West Africa swamped cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast and Ghana, which account for about 70 percent of global production.
—David J. Lynch, Washington Post, 12 Mar. 2024
Higher production has been swamped by lower commodity prices though.
—Trefis Team, Forbes, 22 Feb. 2024
Spring is a great time to put this all into play, but landscape planners are already getting swamped.
—Neil Sperry, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 9 Feb. 2024
The swamping winter coat has been swapped out for a long-line leather jacket, while the concrete-scraping plaid trousers have been swapped for cropped denim.
—Daniel Rodgers, Vogue, 28 Nov. 2023
Noun
While crossing the swamp during the infiltration, Sever had broken through the ice; the garbage bags around his feet had not prevented his socks from getting drenched.
—Luke Mogelson, The New Yorker, 8 Apr. 2024
In the music video for the track, the two Florida natives are right at home in the swamp as Doechii raps on an airboat and JT lies in mud.
—Chris Malone Mendez, Forbes, 29 Mar. 2024
Trump Has Promised to Do in a Second Term
Who is the Black man who guides Booth across the swamp?
—Chris Vognar, Rolling Stone, 19 Mar. 2024
This landscape stretched across present day Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, and Brazil and included a variety of ecosystems in its lakes and swamps.
—Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 21 Mar. 2024
The billionaire, one of the most consequential figures to walk the Earth, spent another weekend swimming in the right-wing fever swamps of X — a bad habit that was apparent when his interview with Don Lemon was released Monday morning.
—Oliver Darcy, CNN, 19 Mar. 2024
There can be no heroes in such a battle, Bondarchuk is bold enough to suggest, because the battleground itself is such a shape-shifting swamp.
—Catherine Bray, Variety, 17 Feb. 2024
No candidate illustrates this better than Trump, whose time in the fever swamps of Truth Social has left his online presence severely diminished.
—Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic, 14 Feb. 2024
The landscape — wetlands, fish and shrimp ponds fashioned out of mangrove swamp — has largely been preserved, offering a rare look at what life in this region was like before modernization in the 1980s.
—Theodora Yu, Washington Post, 26 Jan. 2024
Verb
On opening weekend, Olivia said, the store was swamped.
—Jenna Thompson, Kansas City Star, 27 Mar. 2024
Social media was swamped with wild ideas on Thursday about what may have been behind the outage, including an attack by a geopolitical adversary of the U.S. like China or Russia.
—Matt Novak / Gizmodo, Quartz, 23 Feb. 2024
Coach Danny Yoshikawa has also been swamped with congratulatory texts and emails from hundreds, including those from a slew of elated alums and former players, after the program’s 59-51 victory over College of the Sequoias on Sunday in Southern California.
—Joseph Dycus, The Mercury News, 20 Mar. 2024
Of that, high-income countries shipped 1.8 billion pounds to low- and middle-income countries in 2022, swamping them with dangerous materials.
—Matt Simon, WIRED, 20 Mar. 2024
But exceptionally heavy rain last summer in West Africa swamped cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast and Ghana, which account for about 70 percent of global production.
—David J. Lynch, Washington Post, 12 Mar. 2024
Higher production has been swamped by lower commodity prices though.
—Trefis Team, Forbes, 22 Feb. 2024
Spring is a great time to put this all into play, but landscape planners are already getting swamped.
—Neil Sperry, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 9 Feb. 2024
The swamping winter coat has been swapped out for a long-line leather jacket, while the concrete-scraping plaid trousers have been swapped for cropped denim.
—Daniel Rodgers, Vogue, 28 Nov. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'swamp.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near swamp
Cite this Entry
“Swamp.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/swamp. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
swamp
1 of 2 noun
ˈswämp 
ˈswȯmp
: wet spongy land often partly covered with water
swamp
2 of 2 verb1
: to fill or become filled with or as if with water
2
: overwhelm sense 2
was swamped with work
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