quagmire

noun

plural quagmires
1
: soft miry land that shakes or yields under the foot
2
: a difficult, precarious, or entrapping position : predicament

Examples of quagmire in a Sentence

That was six months ago, when the Defense secretary laughingly dismissed the idea that Iraq was, or could turn into, a quagmire. But as Rumsfeld sat down last Friday morning to face Sen. John McCain, who spent six years in a Vietnamese prison, no one was laughing. Michael Hirsh et al., Newsweek, 17 Nov. 2003
State involvement will create a vast bioethical quagmire. Even if everyone magically agrees that improving a child's memory is as valid as avoiding dyslexia, there will still be things taxpayers aren't ready to pay for—genes of unproven benefit, say, or alterations whose downsides may exceed the upside. Robert Wright, Time, 11 Jan.1999
the party was once again facing its quadrennial quagmire: the candidate sufficiently liberal to win the nomination would be too liberal for the general election a protracted custody dispute that became a judicial quagmire
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
This could substantially drive up the unemployment rate, putting the economy in a quagmire. Megan Poinski, Forbes, 25 Feb. 2025 But after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan devolved into quagmires, and amid an increasingly draconian security state and cascading failures at home — from Hurricane Katrina to the housing bubble — something shifted. Dan Perry, Newsweek, 26 Nov. 2024 This nation state, my home, is built on a quagmire of lies sold to the young as truths; sold to the insecure as truths; sold by the avaricious, the power-hungry, the conceited, the overwhelmingly white and male. Christine Winter, Artforum, 1 Mar. 2025 Carleton argues that Russell and Tolstoy’s focus on the plight of the individual soldier amid the horror and senselessness of war shaped the public perception of later quagmires, such as World War I and the Vietnam War. Foreign Affairs, 25 Feb. 2025 See All Example Sentences for quagmire

Word History

First Known Use

1566, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of quagmire was in 1566

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Cite this Entry

“Quagmire.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quagmire. Accessed 2 Apr. 2025.

Kids Definition

quagmire

noun
1
: soft spongy wet ground that shakes or gives way under the foot
2
: a difficult situation from which it is hard to escape

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