quagmire

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quag·mire

(kwăg′mīr′, kwŏg′-)

1. Land with a soft muddy surface.

2. A difficult or precarious situation; a predicament.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

quagmire

(ˈkwæɡˌmaɪə; ˈkwɒɡ-)

1. (Physical Geography) a soft wet area of land that gives way under the feet; bog

2. an awkward, complex, or embarrassing situation

[C16: from quag + mire]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

quag•mire

(ˈkwægˌmaɪ^ər, ˈkwɒg-)

n.

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.

[1570–80]

quag′mir′y, adj.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun

quagmire - a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot

mire, morass, quag, slack

bog, peat bog - wet spongy ground of decomposing vegetation; has poorer drainage than a swamp; soil is unfit for cultivation but can be cut and dried and used for fuel

quagmire

noun

1. predicament, difficulty, quandary, pass, fix (informal), jam (informal), dilemma, pinch, plight, scrape (informal), muddle, pickle (informal), impasse, entanglement, imbroglio a political quagmire

2. bog, marsh, swamp, slough, fen, mire, morass, quicksand Overnight rain had turned the grass airstrip into a quagmire.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

quagmire

noun

1. A usually low-lying area of soft waterlogged ground and standing water:

bog, fen, marsh, marshland, mire, morass, muskeg, quag, slough, swamp, swampland, wetland.

2. A difficult, often embarrassing situation or condition:

box, corner, deep water, difficulty, dilemma, Dutch, fix, hole, hot spot, hot water, jam, plight, predicament, scrape, soup, trouble.

Informal: bind, pickle, spot.

Translations

Zwickmühle

βάλτος τέλμα

hetehetteikkösokkelosuoumpisolmu

marais marécage

pantano

ぬかるみ沼地湿地窮地苦境

drijfzand moeras

hengemyr kvikksand myr

болото топь трясина

quagmire

[ˈkwægmaɪəʳ] N → cenagal m, lodazal m (fig) → atolladero m, cenagal m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

quagmire

[ˈkwægmaɪə^r ˈkwɒgmaɪə^r] n

(lit) → bourbier m

(fig) → bourbier m

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

quagmire

n → Sumpf m, → Morast m; (fig) (of vice etc) → Morast m; (= difficult situation) → Schlamassel m (inf); the paths were reduced to a quagmire → die Wege waren völlig aufgeweicht or matschig; he was bogged down in a quagmire of tiny details → er hatte sich in einem Wust von kleinen Einzelheiten festgebissen

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

quagmire

[ˈkwægˌmaɪəʳ] n → pantano (fig) → caos m inv

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References in classic literature ?

A snake who could make himself comfortable in a quagmire, a hundred feet deep, would be protected on the outskirts by such stupendous morasses as now no longer exist, or which, if they exist anywhere at all, can be on very few places on the earth's surface.

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Tess, meanwhile, as the one who had dragged her parents into this quagmire, was silently wondering what she could do to help them out of it; and then her mother broached her scheme.

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'Well,' says I, 'you talk o' Bony's cliverness; would it be any use my being a first-rate gardener if I'd got nought but a quagmire to work on?' 'No,' says he.

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We had some difficulty in reaching the point, owing to the intolerably bad paths; for everywhere in the shade the ground soon becomes a perfect quagmire. The point itself is a bold rocky hill.

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On both sides lay an extensive quagmire, which could not have been more disagreeable either to sight or smell, had all the kennels of the earth emptied their pollution there.

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Riding-saddles and bridles, pack-saddles and strings of bells, mules and men, lanterns, torches, sacks, provender, barrels, cheeses, kegs of honey and butter, straw bundles and packages of many shapes, were crowded confusedly together in this thawed quagmire and about the steps.

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The ground was so much dug up all over, that as the season advanced it turned to a quagmire. When it froze hard, he was disconso- late.

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Country in which there are precipitous cliffs with torrents running between, deep natural hollows, confined places, tangled thickets, quagmires and crevasses, should be left with all possible speed and not approached.

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The latter, he found extremely muddy, and so surrounded by swamps and quagmires, that he was obliged to construct canoes of rushes, with which to explore them.

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Many of them they had so completely dammed up as to inundate the low grounds, making shallow pools or lakes, and extensive quagmires; by which the route of the travellers was often impeded.

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The deer, looking soaked, leave quagmires where they pass.

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Over the Tarn and the Garonne, through the vast quagmires of Armagnac, past the swift-flowing Losse, and so down the long valley of the Adour, there was many a long league to be crossed ere they could join themselves to that dark war-cloud which was drifting slowly southwards to the line of the snowy peaks, beyond which the banner of England had never yet been seen.