quagmire
Americannoun
-
an area of miry or boggy ground whose surface yields under the tread; a bog.
-
a situation from which extrication is very difficult.
a quagmire of financial indebtedness.
- Synonyms:
- jam, scrape, quandary, dilemma, predicament
-
anything soft or flabby.
noun
-
a soft wet area of land that gives way under the feet; bog
-
an awkward, complex, or embarrassing situation
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of quagmire
Explanation
A quagmire is a dangerous place, like the muddy shoreline of a pond. Because it's so hard to climb out of a quagmire, the word has also come to mean any difficult or sticky situation you find yourself in. Long ago, quag was a synonym for "bog" or "marsh," a swampy area where water seems to sit instead of drain out. Mire is another word to describe such a place. As a verb mire means "stuck," like someone who's mired in quicksand or mired in work — both prevent you from going anywhere. In a quagmire, you get stuck physically — or, even more commonly, in a situation that is hard to escape because there is no easy solution.
Vocabulary lists containing quagmire
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Hamilton
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40 SAT words Beginning with "Q"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"Quagmire is a scenario... It doesn't mean we expect this to happen," Budds said.
From Barron's • Jun. 8, 2026
MacFarlane: Screaming into a mic for long stretches with the Carter Pewterschmidt voice, the Quagmire voice, the Seamus voice.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 16, 2024
The Force-Feeding Quagmire Dozens of hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay are being kept alive with a painful, ethically questionable, and politically sensitive medical procedure.
From Newsweek • Jun. 20, 2013
Whether or not the awards race itself is compelling, I’ll be very interested to see if this move is a triumph or a Quagmire.
From Time • Oct. 2, 2012
We were coming up to the crossing of Quagmire Road and the Hog Scald Road, where there’s a high screen of hedge apple.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
