What is "swamp"

Swamp \Swamp\, n. [Cf. AS. swam a fungus, OD. swam a sponge, D. zwam a fungus, G. schwamm a sponge, Icel. sv["o]ppr, 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. (Zo["o]l.) See Redwing (b) . Swamp cabbage (Bot.), skunk cabbage. Swamp deer (Zo["o]l.), an Asiatic deer ( Rucervus Duvaucelli) of India. Swamp hen. (Zo["o]l.)

1. An Australian azure-breasted bird ( Porphyrio bellus); -- called also goollema.

2. An Australian water crake, or rail ( Porzana Tabuensis); -- called also little swamp hen.

3. The European purple gallinule.

   Swamp honeysuckle (Bot.), an American shrub ( Azalea viscosa syn. Rhododendron viscosa or Rhododendron viscosum) growing in swampy places, with fragrant flowers of a white color, or white tinged with rose; -- called also swamp pink and white swamp honeysuckle.

   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 (Zo["o]l.), any one of several Australian game birds of the genera Synoicus and Excalfatoria, allied to the European partridges.

   Swamp robin (Zo["o]l.), 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 (Zo["o]l.), 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.) 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.

"overwhelm, sink (as if in a swamp)," 1772, from swamp (n.). Figurative sense is from 1818. Related: Swamped; swamping.

c.1500 (implied in swampwatyr "swamp-water"), of uncertain origin, perhaps [Barnhart] a dialectal survival from an Old English cognate of Old Norse svöppr "sponge, fungus," from Proto-Germanic *swampuz; but traditionally connected with Middle English sompe "morass, swamp," which probably is from Middle Dutch somp or Middle Low German sump "swamp" (see sump). All of these likely are ultimately related to each other, from PIE *swombho- "spongy; mushroom," via the notion of "spongy ground."\n\n[B]y swamps then in general is to be understood any low grounds subject to inundations, distinguished from marshes, in having a large growth of timber, and much underwood, canes, reeds, wythes, vines, briers, and such like, so matted together, that they are in a great measure impenetrable to man or beast .... [Bernard Romans, "A Concise History of East and West Florida," 1775] \n\nMore popular in U.S. (swamp (n.) by itself is first attested 1624 in Capt. John Smith's description of Virginia). Swamp-oak is from 1680s, American English. Swamp Yankee "rural, rustic New Englander" is attested from 1941. Thornton's "American Glossary" (1912) has swamp-angel "dweller in a swamp," swamp-law "might makes right."

n. 1 A piece of wet, spongy land; low ground saturated with water; soft, wet ground which may have a growth of certain kinds of trees, but is unfit for agricultural or pastoral purposes. 2 A type of wetland that stretches for vast distances, and is home to many creatures who have adapted specifically to that environment. vb. 1 To drench or fill with water. 2 To overwhelm; to make too busy, or overrun the capacity of. 3 (context figurative English) To plunge into difficulties and perils; to overwhelm; to ruin; to wreck.

1. n. low land that is seasonally flooded; has more woody plants than a marsh and better drainage than a bog [syn: swampland]

2. a situation fraught with difficulties and imponderables; "he was trapped in a medical swamp"

1. v. drench or submerge or be drenched or submerged; "The tsunami swamped every boat in the harbor" [syn: drench]

2. fill quickly beyond capacity; as with a liquid; "the basement was inundated after the storm"; "The images flooded his mind" [syn: deluge, flood, inundate]

A swamp is a wetland that is forested. Many swamps occur along large rivers where they are critically dependent upon natural water level fluctuations. Other swamps occur on the shores of large lakes. Some swamps have hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodic inundation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp forests and "transitional" or shrub swamps. In the boreal regions of Canada, the word swamp is colloquially used for what is more correctly termed a bog or muskeg. The water of a swamp may be fresh water, brackish water or seawater. Some of the world's largest swamps are found along major rivers such as the Amazon, the Mississippi, and the Congo.

Swamp is a comic strip created by Australian Gary Clark. It was first published in 1981 in the Sunshine Coast Daily. According to Clark, the inspiration and model for this strip was the creeks and lagoons in a bushy suburban Brisbane where he grew up in the 1960s. He describes the strip as a "down-to-earth look at a bewildered society thriving in an ever-increasing complex world."

The popular characters in the comic strip are : Ding Duck, Wart & Mort Frog, Old Man Croc, Bob the Crayfish, The Dung Beetles, Air Traffic Controller, The Ants, The Bludgerigar. Ding Duck and the Air Traffic Controller are popular worldwide in aviation circles. Wart & Mort Frog are popular with organisations and websites that promote water quality and sustainability and a clean, green environment.

Under license to AKASHI HIFUKU KOGYO Co. Ltd, the Swamp characters appear on upscale casual and sportswear especially golf sportswear in Japan and South Korea.

It is syndicated to newspapers throughout Australia, New Zealand and Europe and translated into seven languages.

Gary Clark has won 10 Stanley Awards for Best Comic Strip Artist of the Year including the inaugural award presented by Prime Minister Bob Hawke. Also, Clark has won 11 Rotary National Cartoon Awards. His company, Swamp Productions Pty Ltd was nominated for export achievement in Arts/Entertainment category in the Premier of Queensland Awards in 1999 for export achievement to Japan.

Early in his cartooning career, Gary Clark created the popular Diesel Dog Cartoon featured in Truckin' Life Magazine in Australia. He relinquished creating Diesel Dog cartoons for over 20 years and in 2011 was requested by Truckin' Life to being Diesel's creator once again.

In August 2013, the comic strip was reported to have stopped syndication in News Corporation papers in Australia as a cost saving measure, but remains syndicated elsewhere.

Swamp is the debut and only album from English songwriter and producer Phil Thornalley.

The album was released to commercial failure, where Swamp failed to make an appearance on the American Billboard 200 Albums Chart. A total of two singles were released from the album. "Love Me Like a Rock" was released in 1988 whilst "Listen" was released in 1989, and like the album were both commercially unsuccessful.

"Swamp" is a 1987 single by That Petrol Emotion.

A swamp is a wooded wetland.

Swamp or The Swamp may also refer to:

• Swamp (comic strip), a comic strip by Gary Clark
• "The Swamp" (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
• The Swamp (Ireland), a summer replacement for The Den on RTÉ
• Southern Waste Management Partnership (SWaMP), Northern Ireland
• The Swamp, a book by Bill Thomas
• The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise (2006), a book by Michael Grunwald
• The Swamp, a studio space associated with GWAR record label Slave Pit Inc.
• "Swamp", a song by Talking Heads from Speaking in Tongues
• "Swamp", a song by Northern Irish, London-based band That Petrol Emotion from the album Babble
• Swamp music (disambiguation) or simply swamp, a type of American popular music

• Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, the football stadium at the University of Florida in Gainesville
• Cajun Field, the football stadium at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette
• Cypress Lake (Lafayette, Louisiana), also on the UL Lafayette campus
• The surgical staff quarters tent which was home to some of the main characters in M*A*S*H