Serbonian

American  

[ser-boh-nee-uhn] / sərˈboʊ ni ən /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or designating the large marshy tract of land in the northern part of ancient Egypt in which entire armies are said to have been swallowed up.

---

Etymology

Origin of Serbonian

1660–70; < Greek Serbōní ( s ) ( límnē ) Serbonian (marsh) + -an

Example Sentences

That avenue was nicknamed “the great Serbonian bog.”

From The New Yorker • Jan. 19, 2017

The engineer himself was declared to have been swallowed up in the Serbonian bog; and “railways were at an end for ever!”

From Lives of the Engineers The Locomotive. George and Robert Stephenson by Smiles, Samuel

Young students often get swamped and lose their way in the Serbonian bogs of learning, when they need to explore only a simple and plain pathway to a specific destination.

From How to Study and Teaching How to Study by McMurry, Frank M. (Frank Morton)

She is o'erwhelmed quite, sunk in the Serbonian bogs of dark despair.

From Brann the Iconoclast — Volume 01 by Brann, William Cowper

The first is deeper than the Serbonian bog, and would swallow up the whole British army.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, Number 358, August 1845 by Various