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Swamp vs Swale - What's the difference?

swamp | swale |

As nouns the difference between swamp and swale

is that swamp is 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 while swale is a low tract of moist or marshy land.

As verbs the difference between swamp and swale

is that swamp is to drench or fill with water while swale is alternative form of nodot=yes lang=en (melt and waste away, or singe.

swamp

English

Alternative forms

* (l) (obsolete)

Noun

(wikipedia swamp) (en noun)
  • 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.
  • A type of wetland that stretches for vast distances, and is home to many creatures who have adapted specifically to that environment.

    • Derived terms

    * swamp gum * swampland * swamp wallaby * swampy

    See also

    * bog * marsh * moor

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To drench or fill with water.
    • The boat was swamped in the storm.
  • To overwhelm; to make too busy, or overrun the capacity of.
    • I have been swamped with paperwork ever since they started using the new system.
  • * 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.
  • (figurative) To plunge into difficulties and perils; to overwhelm; to ruin; to wreck.
  • * J. R. Green
    • The Whig majority of the house of Lords was swamped by the creation of twelve Tory peers.
  • * W. Hamilton
    • Having swamped himself in following the ignis fatuus of a theory

    swale

    English

    Etymology 1

    , from (etyl), "shade", perhaps of Scandinavian origin; akin to (etyl) svalr

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A low tract of moist or marshy land.
  • A long narrow and shallow trough between ridges on a beach, running parallel to the coastline.
  • A shallow troughlike depression that's created to carry water during rainstorms or snow melts; a drainage ditch.
  • A shallow, usually grassy depression sloping downward from a plains upland meadow or level vegetated ridgetop.
  • *
    • Jane climbed a few more paces behind him and then peeped over the ridge. Just beyond began a shallow swale that deepened and widened into a valley, and then swung to the left.
  • A shallow trough dug into the land on contour (horizontally with no slope). Its purpose being to allow water time to percolate into the soil.

    • Etymology 2

    See sweal.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (UK, dialect) A gutter in a candle.

    • Verb

    (swal)
  • (melt and waste away, or singe)

    • Anagrams

    *