Swamper
noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A person who lives in a swampy area. US
- 2 A person who clears a road for lumberers in a forest or swamp. US
"In the latter part of winter, I hired with a lumberer – camped out, and wrought in the forest as a swamper."
- 3 Someone or something that swamps or overwhelms.
"The Population Factor is a dissipator or swamper of the gain in per capita income and hence of the redressal of poverty to that degree."
- 4 A truck driver's assistant; an assistant to a driver of horses, mules or bullocks. Canada, US, slang
"To use such a brake on the front wagon, the driver stood up on the seat, letting the team follow the leaders, and threw his whole weight on the upper end of the bar, while the swamper braked the rear wagon."
- 5 a person who travels by foot but has his belongings on a wagon. Australia, slang
"On the road to the Diorite King, which is about 40 miles from Leonora, there was nothing much to see except a good many swampers. A “swamper” is a man tramping without his swag, which he entrusts to a teamster to bring on his waggon."
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- 6 A handyman or general employee in a liquor saloon; a cook's assistant. US
"The old swamper shifted his broom and held it between his elbow and his side while he held out his hand for the can."
Example
More examples"In the latter part of winter, I hired with a lumberer – camped out, and wrought in the forest as a swamper."
Etymology
From swamp + -er.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.