Swale

Quick meaning: Swale is a noun meaning A low tract of moist or marshy land.

Meaning

A low tract of moist or marshy land.

More Meanings

1. A long narrow and shallow trough between ridges on a beach, running parallel to the coastline.
2. A shallow troughlike depression created to carry water during rainstorms or snow melts; a drainage ditch.
3. A shallow, usually grassy depression sloping downward from a plains upland meadow or level vegetated ridgetop.
4. (UK, dialectal) A gutter in a candle.
5. Bioswale, a shallow trough dug into the land on contour (horizontally with no slope), whose purpose is to allow water time to percolate into the soil.
6. Alternative form of sweal (“melt and waste away, or singe”).

Example Sentences

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.

The stored water creates an underground reservoir that aids plant growth for tens of feet below the swale. Swales also prevent gullies from forming by intercepting rainwater, slowing it, spreading it, and storing it in the soil.

Word Forms

• swales
• swaling
• swaled

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include vegetated, swampland, wetland, swamp, slough, marshland.

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