[f. SWAMP sb. or v. + -ER1.]
1. U.S. A workman who clears a road for lumberers in a ‘swamp’ or forest.
1857. Thoreau, Maine W., i. (1912), 57. The company consists of choppers, swampers,—who make roads,—barker and loader, teamster, and cook.
1880. Lumberman’s Gaz., 28 Jan. A Wisconsin lumber-camp is divided into ‘choppers,’ ‘sawyers’ and swampers.
b. A man-of-all-work in a liquor saloon. U.S.
1907. in Thornton, American Glossary.
2. An inhabitant of a swampy district. U.S.
1891. Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 9 April, 2/3. It has a high reputation among the swampers as a remedy for rheumatism.
3. One who swamps or overwhelms, as by superior numbers. nonce-use.
1884. Sat. Rev., 12 July, 37/2. Mr. Gladstone asks them to swamp themselves without inquiring how they are to be swamped, and to admit their swampers without inquiring how the swampers are to be treated in the way of assigning seats to them.
