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
- quagmiry adjective
Etymology
Origin of quagmire
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.
USC has found itself in a financial quagmire at an unsettled moment.
From Los Angeles Times
Meanwhile, the war in Iraq came to seem closer to a quagmire than he had predicted.
“I can’t get them to initiate the money. It’s just a quagmire.”
From Salon
The quagmire of falsified and lost records for Syria's missing children means surviving mothers and fathers are left to hunt from one institution to the next for any information at all.
From BBC
She is simply not interested in the “you always,” “I never” emotional quagmires a gridlocked freeway or rerouting decision can churn up.
From Los Angeles Times
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.
