quagmire

[ kwag-mahyuhr, kwog- ]

noun

1. an area of miry or boggy ground whose surface yields under the tread; a bog.
2. a situation from which extrication is very difficult:

   a quagmire of financial indebtedness.

   Synonyms: jam, scrape, quandary, dilemma, predicament

3. anything soft or flabby.

quagmire

/ ˈkwæɡˌmaɪə; ˈkwɒɡ- /

noun

1. a soft wet area of land that gives way under the feet; bog
2. an awkward, complex, or embarrassing situation

Other Words From

• quagmiry adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of quagmire¹

First recorded in 1570–80; quag + mire

Word History and Origins

Origin of quagmire¹

C16: from quag + mire

Example Sentences

It doesn’t actually address the larger quagmire, and no app or private benefit will.

From Vox

Long ago, Americans lost both a sense of the war’s purpose and any appetite for quagmire.

From Washington Post

Your framework describes a scenario where things go from crusade to quagmire.

From Time

Couples like Niemer and Backstrom are navigating a tricky quagmire of ethics and etiquette to ensure the safety of their big day.

From MIT Technology Review

He was painting and selling his delicate “abstract impressionist” paintings while watching coverage of the quagmire in Vietnam.

From Washington Post

And the reasons for that suggest just how densely complicated the Mideast quagmire has become.

From The Daily Beast

Creator David Simon meant the line to be a reference to the quagmire of the Iraq War.

From The Daily Beast

To date Obama has been determined not to talk about that, likely because to complain is to risk a corrosive quagmire.

From The Daily Beast

Four years later, he has absented himself utterly from the quagmire in which nearly 90 million Egyptians find themselves.

From The Daily Beast

In the 1980s the goal was to defeat the Soviets by creating a quagmire for the Red Army like Vietnam was for America.

From The Daily Beast

In the centre of this quagmire and near where the road crosses the bottom is a spring of good water.

From Project Gutenberg

I was so near discovering the truth, and yet my inquiries had only plunged me more deeply into a quagmire of suspicion and horror.

From Project Gutenberg

The moor was boggy, and he crossed patches of quagmire which trembled even under his light weight.

From Project Gutenberg

At one spot my horse sank into a quagmire, and it was only with the greatest difficulty that I finally got it out again.

From Project Gutenberg

In the pelting rain of a Burmese monsoon the so-called road soon became a mere quagmire.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• dilemma
• entanglement
• imbroglio
• impasse
• morass
• predicament
• quandary