Word.ws English Dictionary

drain the swamp

drain the swamp verb: to eliminate the root causes of problems, especially to rid politics and government of evils, such as corruption and bureaucracy.

Verb

drain the swamp (third-person singular simple present drains the swamp, present participle draining the swamp, simple past and past participle drained the swamp)

  1. (US, figuratively) To eliminate the root causes of problems, especially to rid politics and government of evils, such as corruption and bureaucracy.
    • Why can't the Massachusetts Legislature summon its courage, and the Governor, and drain the swamp of which it is all so well aware, an act which in and of itself would eliminate many of the alligators.1972 February 24, Ian Menzies, “Please! Drain swamp”, in The Boston Globe, page 24
    • In every conversation I had with Trump supporters at his rallies during the election, one impulse kept surfacing: drain the swamp.2024 November 11, Peter Hyman, “Donald Trump is right. There is a "swamp", but it’s the left that must drain it”, in New Statesman

Forms of drain the swamp

third-person singular presentdrains the swamp
present participledraining the swamp
past participledrained the swamp
pastdrained the swamp

Origin of drain the swamp

First use appears c. 1899.

Questions about drain the swamp

What does drain the swamp mean?
Drain the swamp means to eliminate the root causes of problems, especially to rid politics and government of evils, such as corruption and bureaucracy.
What part of speech is drain the swamp?
Drain the swamp is a verb.
What is the past tense of drain the swamp?
The past tense of drain the swamp is drained the swamp.

Words near drain the swamp in the dictionary

  1. drain the dragon
  2. drain the lizard
  3. drain the main vein
  4. drain the python
  5. drain the snake
  6. drain the swamp
  7. drain-cleaner
  8. drain-cleaners
  9. drain-like
  10. drainability
  11. drainable

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: drain the swamp (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “drain the swamp.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/drain_the_swamp. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.