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quagmire

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 7 June 2016
EnglishWikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
A quagmire orswamp inLouisiana, United States

Etymology

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Recorded since 1579, fromquag +‎mire. The sense “perilous, mixed up and troubled situation” has been recorded since 1775.[1]

Alternatively, the word may apparently be a variation of the earlierquakemire, fromquake +mire.[2]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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quagmire (pluralquagmires)

  1. Aswampy,soggy area ofground.
    Synonyms:marsh,marshland,mire,quag
    Thatquagmire regularly ‘swallows’ caught-up hikers’ boots
    • 1886 October –1887 January,H[enry] Rider Haggard,She: A History of Adventure, London:Longmans, Green, and Co., published1887,→OCLC:
      Never did I see a more dreary and depressing scene. Miles on miles ofquagmire, varied only by bright green strips of comparatively solid ground, and by deep and sullen pools fringed with tall rushes, in which the bitterns boomed and the frogs croaked incessantly: miles on miles of it without a break, unless the fever fog can be called a break.
  2. (figuratively) Aperilous,mixed up andtroubled situation; a hopelesstangle.
    Synonyms:predicament;see alsoThesaurus:difficult situation
    The paperwork got lost in aquagmire of bureaucracy.
    Those election results are aquagmire for any coalition except one of national union.
    • 1834,L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter I, inFrancesca Carrara. […], volume I, London:Richard Bentley, […], (successor toHenry Colburn),→OCLC,pages168-169:
      "And what was this, my beloved brother, but a vain yielding to unbridled imagination, which, like a spring confined to one spot, collects its pure clear waters, and in at once a beauty and a blessing; but which, allowed to spread abroad in every direction, oozes through the marshy earth, becomes stagnant, and is habited by the loathsome reptile. That which would have been a green haunt, with its fair fountain, is a dreary and uselessquagmire. Is it not thus with the mind, Guido?"
    • 2019 May 5, Danette Chavez, “Campaigns are Waged On and Off theGame Of Thrones Battlefield (Newbies)”, inThe A.V. Club‎[1], archived fromthe original on28 January 2021:
      I’ve had my doubts about Daenerys’ ability to rule, inspired in part by thequagmire in Meereen. Still, this feels like a precipitous decline. The queen of sobriquets has always been power hungry.
    • 2021 November 24, Stephen Marche, “The Algorithm That Could Take Us Inside Shakespeare’s Mind”, inThe New York Times‎[2],→ISSN:
      The only way to know Shakespeare is through his works, and his works are textualquagmires.

Translations

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swampy ground
perilous, mixed up and troubled situation
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions atWiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

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quagmire (third-person singular simple presentquagmires,present participlequagmiring,simple past and past participlequagmired)

  1. (transitive) Toembroil (a person, etc.) in complexity or difficulty.

References

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  1. ^Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “quagmire”, inOnline Etymology Dictionary.
  2. ^William Dwight Whitney,Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “quagmire”, inThe Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.:The Century Co.,→OCLC..
  • “quagmire”, inOneLook Dictionary Search..
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