tarpit

Or tar pit

[tahr-pit]

noun

1. seepage of natural tar or asphalt, especially an accumulation that has acted as a natural trap into which animals have fallen and sunk and had their bones preserved.

Word History and Origins

Origin of tarpit¹

First recorded in 1830–40; tar ¹ + pit ¹

Example Sentences

Nora, despite her professional success, is an emotional tarpit who has never married and is wary of commitment.

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When it doesn’t, it turns into a tarpit in which a person could find themselves trapped.

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When it doesn’t, it turns into a tarpit in which a person could find themselves trapped.

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Cities and environmental justice groups trying to put an end to oil operations run right into, well, a tarpit of grandfathered permits, aggressive oil companies, and arcane petro-chemical regulations.

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They’re just a better flavor of the same poison that’s enabled corporate greed and the growing social inequality that maybe sent your uncle off into this tarpit in the first place.

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