Crossword Genius

Sea bird nearly trapped in wild fen or swamp (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

engulf

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'swamp' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'sea bird nearly trapped in wild fen' is the wordplay.
'sea bird' becomes 'gull' (gull is a kind of sea bird).
'nearly' means to remove the last letter.
'trapped in' is an insertion indicator.
'wild fen' becomes 'enf' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'gull' with its final letter taken off is 'gul'.
'gul' put into 'enf' is 'ENGULF'.

'or' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for engulf that I've seen before include "'Surround, overwhelm (6)'" , "Absorb, immerse" , "Swamp, overwhelm" , "Swallow up like wave" , "Flu gen (anag) - overwhelm" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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