quagmire

a dangerous situation from which it is difficult to escape

TRANSLATION

der Sumpf

STATISTICS

IN THE PRESS

"Thankfully, the military this time acted with more prudence and maturity when Pakistan faced its worst constitutional quagmire - Premier Nawaz Shariff clashing openly with President Leghari on one side and Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah on the other."

(The Sunday Times, 28 December 1997)

Did you
know?

Did you know?

Quagmire is from quag, a dialectical variant of quake (from Old English cwacian) + mire, from Old Norse myrr, "a swamp."·mire.

Date: 1580

It has two meanings:

1. Land with a soft muddy surface.

2. A difficult, entrapping or precarious situation; a predicament.

Synonyms: predicament, box, corner, dilemma, fix, hole, jam, pickle, plight, scrape

to be caught in a quagmire = in der Patsche sitzen

More Word Quizzes: