different between swamp vs engulf

English

Alternative forms

• swomp (obsolete)

Etymology

From a fusion of Middle English swam (“swamp, muddy pool, bog, marsh", also "fungus, mushroom”), from Old English swamm (“mushroom, fungus, sponge”), and Middle English sompe (“marsh, morass”), from Middle Dutch somp, sump (“marsh, swamp”), or Middle Low German sump (“marsh, swamp”), from Old Saxon *sump (“swamp, marsh”); all from Proto-Germanic *sumpaz. Cognate with Dutch zwamp (“swamp, marsh, fen”), Middle Low German swamp (“sponge, mushroom”), Dutch zomp (“swamp, lake, marshy place”), German Low German Sump (“swamp, bog,marsh”), German Sumpf (“swamp”), Swedish sump (“swamp”). Related also to Dutch zwam (“fungus, punk, tinder”), German Schwamm (“mushroom, fungus, sponge”), Swedish svamp (“mushroom, fungus, sponge”), Icelandic svampur, sveppur (“fungus”), Gothic ???????????????????????? (swumsl, “a ditch”). Related to sump, swim.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /sw?mp/
• (US) IPA^(key): /sw?mp/
• Rhymes: -?mp

Noun

swamp (plural swamps)

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 which have adapted specifically to that environment.
3. (figuratively) A place or situation that is foul or where progress is difficult.

Derived terms

Descendants

• Sranan Tongo: swampu
• ? Dutch: zwamp

Translations

See also

• bog
• marsh
• moor

Verb

swamp (third-person singular simple present swamps, present participle swamping, simple past and past participle swamped)

1. To drench or fill with water.

2. To overwhelm; to make too busy, or overrun the capacity of.
   • 2006, New York Times,

     Mr. Spitzer’s defeat of his Democratic opponent ... ended a primary season in which Hillary Rodham Clinton swamped an antiwar challenger for renomination to the Senate.

3. (figuratively) To plunge into difficulties and perils; to overwhelm; to ruin; to wreck.
   • 1874, John Richard Green, A Short History of the English People

     The Whig majority of the house of Lords was swamped by the creation of twelve Tory peers.

   • c. 1835, William Hamilton, "Metaphysics and Moral Science", in Edinburgh Review

     Having swamped himself in following the ignis fatuus of a theory […]

Translations

Anagrams

• wamps

English

Etymology

en- +? gulf

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?lf

Verb

engulf (third-person singular simple present engulfs, present participle engulfing, simple past and past participle engulfed)

1. (transitive) To overwhelm.

   Desperation engulfed her after her daughter's death.

   • 2013 June 18, Simon Romero, "Protests Widen as Brazilians Chide Leaders," New York Times (retrieved 21 June 2013):

     Shaken by the biggest challenge to their authority in years, Brazil’s leaders made conciliatory gestures on Tuesday to try to defuse the protests engulfing the nation’s cities.

   • 1934, The Modern Monthly, vol 8, page 308:

2. (transitive) To surround; to cover.

   Only Noah and his family survived when the Flood engulfed the world.

3. (transitive) To cast into a gulf.

Translations

Anagrams

• Lufeng