a. [f. SWAMP sb. + -Y.] Of the nature of a swamp; abounding in swamps; marshy, boggy.
1697. Dampier, Voy., I. ii. 20. We crossed a deep River … and marched 7 mile in a low swampy ground.
1716. B. Church, Hist. Philip’s War (1865), I. 102. He … took into the Woods and Swampy thickets.
1791. R. Mylne, 2nd Rep. Thames, 12. The Towing Path is interrupted by a low, swampy Eyot.
1839. Darwin, Voy. Nat., x. (1852), 209. The ground is covered by a thick bed of swampy peat.
1874. Green, Short Hist., iii. § 4. 128. The town was guarded by the swampy meadows along Cherwell.
1877. Huxley, Physiogr., 145. In many deltas, the alluvial land is swampy.
fig. 1875. McLaren, Serm., Ser. II. vii. 126. The swampy corruption that fills your life.
b. Of or pertaining to a swamp; found in swamps, as swampy iron ore = bog iron ore (BOG sb.1 4); proceeding from a swamp.
1796. Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), II. 183. Swampy Iron ore. Sumpferz of Werner.
1798. Malthus, Popul. (1817), I. 214. Swampy exhalations.
Hence Swampily adv., Swampiness.
1753. Richardson, Grandison (1766), V. 55. A little swampiness of soil.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, I. 501. The swampiness of the ground was completely removed.
1890. Blackw. Mag., July, 57/2. A short cut … has to be circuitously and swampily repented of.
