Adjacent Words

Marsh definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

M`ARSH, n. A tract of low land, usually or occasionally covered with water, or very wet and miry, and overgrown with coarse grass or with detached clumps of sedge; a fen. It differs from swamp, which is merely moist or spungy land, but often producing valuable crops of grass. Lowland occasionally overflowed by the tides, is called salt marsh.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: low-lying wet land with grassy vegetation; usually is a transition zone between land and water; "thousands of acres of marshland"; "the fens of eastern England" [syn: marsh, marshland, fen, fenland]
2: United States painter (1898-1954) [syn: Marsh, Reginald Marsh]
3: New Zealand writer of detective stories (1899-1982) [syn: Marsh, Ngaio Marsh]

Merriam Webster's

noun Usage: often attributive Etymology: Middle English mersh, from Old English merisc, mersc; akin to Middle Dutch mersch marsh, Old English mere sea, pool — more at marine Date: before 12th century a tract of soft wet land usually characterized by monocotyledons (as grasses or cattails)

Merriam Webster's

biographical name Dame (Edith) Ngaio 1899-1982 New Zealand writer

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 low land flooded in wet weather and usu. watery at all times. 2 (attrib.) of or inhabiting marshland. Phrases and idioms: marsh fever malaria. marsh gas methane. marsh-harrier a European harrier, Circus aeruginosus (see HARRIER(3)). marsh mallow a shrubby herbaceous plant, Althaea officinalis, the roots of which were formerly used to make marshmallow. marsh marigold a golden-flowered ranunculaceous plant, Caltha palustris, growing in moist meadows etc.: also called KINGCUP. marsh tit a grey tit, Parus palustris, inhabiting marshland. marsh trefoil the buckbean. Derivatives: marshy adj. (marshier, marshiest). marshiness n. Etymology: OE mer(i)sc f. WG

Webster's 1913 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.) (a) The guelder-rose or cranberry tree (Viburnum Opulus). (b) 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 S. cynosuroides is not good for hay unless cut very young. The low S. 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) 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. (b) The marsh harrier. Marsh hen (Zo["o]l.), a rail; esp., Rallus elegans of fresh-water marshes, and R. longirostris of salt-water marshes. Marsh mallow (Bot.), a plant of the genus Alth[ae]a ( 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 (S. 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.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(marshes) A marsh is a wet, muddy area of land. = bog N-VAR

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

marsh ((1) gebhe', the American Standard Revised Version "marsh," the King James Version and the English Revised Version "marish" (Eze 47:11); the King James Version "pit," the Revised Version (British and American) "cistern" (Isa 30:14); compare Arabic jaba', "reservoir," "watering-through"; (2) bots, "mire"; bitstsah, "mire," "fen"; compare Arabic badda, to "trickle," badad, "a little water"; (3) TiT, "mire" "clay"; (4) chomer, "mire," "clay," "mortar"; (5) ma`abheh ha-'adhamah (1Ki 7:46), and `abhi ha-'adhamah (2Ch 4:17), "clay ground"): In the vision of Ezekiel the saltness of the Dead Sea is "healed" by the stream issuing from under the threshold of the temple, "But the miry places (bitstsah) thereof, and the marshes (gebhe') thereof, shall not be healed" (Eze 47:11). Gebhe' occurs elsewhere only in Isa 30:14, where the King James Version has "pit" and the Revised Version (British and American) "cistern." Bots, "mire," is found only in Jer 38:22. Bitstsah is found also in Job 8:11,

"Can the rush grow up without mire (bitstsah)?

Can the flag grow without water?"

and in Job 40:21 (of the behemoth),

"He lieth under the lotus-trees,

In the covert of the reed, and the fen (bitstsah)."

In 1 Macc 9:42,45 helos, but in 9:42 Codex Vaticanus reads oros, "mount." Marshes are found near the mouths of some of the rivers, as the Kishon, about the Chuleh (? waters of Merom), at various places in the course of the Jordan and about the Dead Sea, especially at its south end. For the most part Palestine is rocky and dry.

Alfred Ely Day

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Fen, bog, quagmire, morass, swamp, slough.

Moby Thesaurus

bog, cesspool, cloaca, cloaca maxima, drain, dump, fen, garbage dump, marshland, mire, morass, quag, quagmire, septic tank, sewer, sink, slough, sump, swamp, swampland