quagmire
(ˈkwægmaɪə(r), ˈkwɒg-)
[app. f. quag n. or v.1 (but evidenced a little earlier) + mire. Numerous synonyms, with a first element of similar form, were in use in the 16th and 17th cents., as qua-, quab-, quad-, quake-, qual-, quave-, quawmire, which will be found in their alphabetical places: cf. also bog-, gog- and wag-mire. The precise relationship of these to each other is not clear: all, or most, may be independent attempts to express the same idea (cf. etym. note to quake v.).]
1. A piece of wet and boggy ground, too soft to sustain the weight of men or the larger animals; a quaking bog; a fen, marsh.
| 1579–80 North Plutarch (1676) 530 There was a certain quagmire before him, that ran with a swift running stream. 1610 Rowlands Martin Mark-all 26 They come to bogs and quagmyres, much like to them in Ireland. 1665 Surv. Aff. Netherl. 120 [Holland is] the greatest Bogg of Europe, and Quagmire of Christendom. 1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters II. 131 The quagmire being pierced..is found no where above two feet deep. 1838 Prescott Ferd. & Is. (1846) III. xiv. 121 The excessive rains..had converted the whole country into a mere quagmire. 1882 Ouida Maremma I. 47 To reach the mountain crest without sinking miserably in a quagmire. |
| Comb. 1611 Cotgr., Mollasse,..quagmire-like. |
2. transf. and
fig. a. Anything soft, flabby, or yielding.
| 1635 Quarles Embl. i. xii. (1718) 50 Thy flesh a trembling bog, a quagmire full of humours. a 1704 T. Brown Praise Poverty Wks. 1730 I. 100 The rich are corpulent, drown'd in foggy quagmires of fat and dropsy. 1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) IV. 488 The indurated patches seem, in some cases, to be fixed upon a quagmire of offensive fluid. |
b. A position or situation from which extrication is difficult.
| 1775 Sheridan Rivals iii. iv, I have followed Cupid's Jack-a-lantern, and find myself in a quagmire at last. 1851 Bright Sp., Eccl. Titles Bill 12 May, The noble Lord..is in a quagmire, and he knows it well. 1873 Hamerton Intell. Life v. ii. (1875) 178 Many a fine intellect has been driven into the deep quagmire. |
Hence
ˈquagmire v., in
pass. to be sunk or stuck in a quagmire; also
fig. † ˈquagmirist, one who makes a quagmire of himself.
ˈquagmiry a., of the nature of a quagmire; boggy.
| 1637 Winthrop New Eng. (1825) I. 233 A most hideous swamp, so thick with bushes and so quagmiry [etc.]. 1655 R. Younge Agst. Drunkards 4 These drunken drones, these gut-mongers, these Quagmirists. 1701 Laconics 120 (L.) When a reader has been quagmired in a dull heavy book. 1846 Landor Imag. Conv. Wks. II. 42 A man is never quagmired till he stops. |