quagmire

noun

quag·​mire ˈkwag-ˌmī(-ə)r  ˈkwäg- 

plural quagmires

1

: soft miry land that shakes or yields under the foot

2

: a difficult, precarious, or entrapping position : predicament

Synonyms

• bind
• box
• catch-22
• corner
• dilemma
• fix
• hole
• impasse
• jackpot [chiefly West]
• jam
• mire
• pickle
• predicament
• rabbit hole
• rattrap
• spot
• sticky wicket
• swamp

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

That creates a quagmire of subjective discussions about who else deserves pardons and is their cause politically justified. —Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 5 Dec. 2024

While pardons extended to broad categories of people are rare, the approach has been used in the past to avoid the Justice Department becoming complicit in moral quagmires of the federal government's own making. —Daniel R. Depetris, Newsweek, 5 Dec. 2024

Georgian anti-Putin drama The Antique, which is that nation’s Oscar entry, has returned to the courts rather than big screens amid a quagmire of legal tussles. —Max Goldbart, Deadline, 22 Nov. 2024

Orr said trans people who want to legally change their name or update their gender marker on identification forms should consider doing so as soon as possible, though the quagmire of state laws can make navigating name changes difficult for trans and nonbinary Americans. —Avery Lotz, Axios, 20 Nov. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1566, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

quagmire

noun

quag·​mire ˈkwag-ˌmī(ə)r  ˈkwäg- 

1

: soft spongy wet ground that shakes or gives way under the foot

2

: a difficult situation from which it is hard to escape