quagmire

Meanings

Noun

• A swampy, soggy area of ground.
• A perilous, mixed up and troubled situation; a hopeless tangle.

Verb

• To embroil (a person, etc.) in complexity or difficulty.

Origin

• Recorded since 1579, from quag + mire. The sense “perilous, mixed up and troubled situation” has been recorded since 1775.
• Alternatively, the word may apparently be a variation of the earlier quakemire, from quake + mire.