quagmire

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noun

Definition of QUAGMIRE

1

a difficult, puzzling, or embarrassing situation from which there is no easy escape <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>

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

Related Words difficulty, node; hot water, soup; pinch, plight, quandary, scrape, trouble; deadlock, halt, logjam, stalemate, standstill; clutch, crisis, crossroad, emergency, exigency, juncture, strait

2

something that catches and holds <a protracted custody dispute that became a judicial quagmire>

Synonyms entanglement, mesh(es), morass, net, noose, quagmire, quicksand, snare, tanglement, toil(s), trap

Related Words knot, snarl, tangle; cat's cradle, labyrinth, maze; cobweb, spiderweb