The Collaborative International Dictionary
Marsh \Marsh\, n. [OE. mersch, AS. mersc, fr. mere lake. See Mere pool, and cf. Marish, Morass.] A tract of soft wet land, commonly covered partially or wholly with water; a fen; a swamp; a morass. [Written also marish.] Marsh asphodel (Bot.), a plant ( Nartheeium ossifragum) with linear equitant leaves, and a raceme of small white flowers; -- called also bog asphodel. Marsh cinquefoil (Bot.), a plant ( Potentilla palustris) having purple flowers, and found growing in marshy places; marsh five-finger. Marsh elder. (Bot.)
The guelder-rose or cranberry tree ( Viburnum Opulus).
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In the United States, a composite shrub growing in salt marshes ( Iva frutescens). Marsh five-finger. (Bot.) See Marsh cinquefoil (above). Marsh gas. (Chem.) See under Gas. Marsh grass (Bot.), a genus ( Spartina) of coarse grasses growing in marshes; -- called also cord grass. The tall Spartina cynosuroides is not good for hay unless cut very young. The low Spartina juncea is a common component of salt hay. Marsh harrier (Zo["o]l.), a European hawk or harrier ( Circus [ae]ruginosus); -- called also marsh hawk, moor hawk, moor buzzard, puttock. Marsh hawk. (Zo["o]l.)
A hawk or harrier ( Circus cyaneus), native of both America and Europe. The adults are bluish slate above, with a white rump. Called also hen harrier, and mouse hawk.
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The marsh harrier.
Marsh hen (Zo["o]l.), a rail; esp., Rallus elegans of fresh-water marshes, and Rallus longirostris of salt-water marshes.
Marsh mallow (Bot.), a plant of the genus Alth[ae]a ( Alth[ae]a officinalis) common in marshes near the seashore, and whose root is much used in medicine as a demulcent.
Marsh marigold. (Bot.) See in the Vocabulary.
Marsh pennywort (Bot.), any plant of the umbelliferous genus Hydrocotyle; low herbs with roundish leaves, growing in wet places; -- called also water pennywort.
Marsh quail (Zo["o]l.), the meadow lark.
Marsh rosemary (Bot.), a plant of the genus Statice ( Statice Limonium), common in salt marshes. Its root is powerfully astringent, and is sometimes used in medicine. Called also sea lavender.
Marsh samphire (Bot.), a plant ( Salicornia herbacea) found along seacoasts. See Glasswort.
Marsh St. John's-wort (Bot.), an American herb ( Elodes Virginica) with small opposite leaves and flesh-colored flowers.
Marsh tea. (Bot.). Same as Labrador tea.
Marsh trefoil. (Bot.) Same as Buckbean.
Marsh wren (Zo["o]l.), any species of small American wrens of the genus Cistothorus, and allied genera. They chiefly inhabit salt marshes.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"a marsh," early 14c., mares, from Old French marois "marshland, bog" (12c., Modern French marais), from Frankish *marisk or some other Germanic source akin to marsh.
Wiktionary
a. (context now poetic or archaic English) marshy; growing in bogs or marshes. n. (label en now poetic or archaic) A marsh.
Usage examples of "marish".
She really would have been smarter to wait for night before trying to enter the castle, but now she was in it and would carry through with marish stubbornness.
She had fatally underestimated the compulsion of her own marish nature.
Soldier walked his charger through very carefully, testing the marish with his lance as they went.
The North Road ran with the Valverras Waste to the east, and the Caln Marish, a maze of fens and marshes, on its other side.
It took them only two days to ride more than twenty leagues to the Caln Marish, where the road turned north again, and another three to reach the Usk River, thirty leagues farther on.
On their right stretched the rocky wolds of the Valverras, and on the left the Caln Marish, with the same rattling stands of black reeds that they had seen before they entered Edinur.
The outlying fields grew first garish with golden ragweed and scarlet poppies, and then dull green again with the brown-knotted rushes and sombre sedge, and all other marish growths, until the re-annexation was complete, and they once more were homogeneous part and parcel of the conquering bog.
It is not deep, has rather a marshy bottom, and many ducks, snipe, and wild-fowl generally dwell among the reeds and marish plants of its sides.
So I took the one-thirty train, and went wandering inland, and stopped at many unknown stations in the midst of great levels, and changed at Marishes Ambo, and went on again through a strange land in the dimness of the winter afternoon.
Her thought it swell'd so sore about her heart That needes must some word from her astart And, since she durst not tell it unto man Down to a marish fast thereby she ran, Till she came there, her heart was all afire: And, as a bittern bumbles* in the mire, *makes a humming noise She laid her mouth unto the water down "Bewray me not, thou water, with thy soun'" Quoth she, "to thee I tell it, and no mo', Mine husband hath long ass's eares two!
One of them then swam back again, with a swiftness amazing to the Beholders, who stood ready to receive him, and help up his Tired Carcass: But the Beast ran furiously up into the Island, and from thence, through the Marishes, up into Newbury Town, and so up into the Woods.