quaggy

adjective

quag·​gy ˈkwa-gē  ˈkwä- 

1

: marshy

2

: flabby

Did you know?

Quaggy is related to quagmire, a word for a patch of wet land that feels soft underfoot, but etymologists are not sure where the first half of the latter word originates. Some have suggested that quag might be imitative, echoing the soft, mushy sound that wet ground makes when you walk on it. Both quagmire and the shorter noun quag first appeared in English in the 1580s, while quaggy, which can describe land as well as other things lacking firmness, appeared about thirty years later.

Examples of quaggy in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Whenever lines cross state borders, the mire becomes particularly quaggy. —Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, 21 Nov. 2022

Word History

First Known Use

1610, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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