Advanced and Proficiency Vocabulary for Exams(e.g.GRE, Banks, Civil Services, SAT / LSAT). For IELTS/TOEFL, and everyday spoken vocabulary, go to our Spoken Vocabulary Database.
a difficult and dangerous situation
- How to Memorize
- quagmire - predicament
- Analysis
In a literal sense, the word ‘quagmire’ refers to a treacherous area of soft, wet, muddy ground that is easy to sink into and become stuck. In a figurative and more commonly used sense, the term describes a precarious or highly difficult situation that is hard to avoid or escape from. In the latter context, it is often used in relation to politics.
- Example(s)
Those country roads are highly treacherous at this time of year. Heavy rains turn them into a quagmire.
The dispute between us and that company has turned into a legal quagmire that has had a deleterious impact on finances.
I don’t think our party should get involved in the debate over that controversial policy because it will inevitably become a political quagmire that will be nearly impossible to extricate ourselves from.
