1
as in predicament
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
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of quagmire
By then, the American effort to create a democratic Iraq was becoming an unpopular quagmire, particularly among Democratic primary voters.
—
Kevin Rennie, Hartford Courant, 11 Apr. 2026
Investors recoiled out of fears of an endless quagmire.
—Jake Angelo, Fortune, 2 Apr. 2026
The administration has asked for an astonishing $200 billion to fund a war that the president also sporadically claims is over, giving legislators an unappetizing choice between funding a quagmire or else walking away and leaving a mess behind.
—David A. Graham, The Atlantic, 25 Mar. 2026
The ongoing debate about whether the Iran war will become a quagmire misses the point.
—Nicholas D. Kristof, Mercury News, 21 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for quagmire
Kevin Rennie, Hartford Courant, 11 Apr. 2026
Investors recoiled out of fears of an endless quagmire.
—Jake Angelo, Fortune, 2 Apr. 2026
The administration has asked for an astonishing $200 billion to fund a war that the president also sporadically claims is over, giving legislators an unappetizing choice between funding a quagmire or else walking away and leaving a mess behind.
—David A. Graham, The Atlantic, 25 Mar. 2026
The ongoing debate about whether the Iran war will become a quagmire misses the point.
—Nicholas D. Kristof, Mercury News, 21 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for quagmire
Recent Examples of Synonyms for quagmire
Noun
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After realizing their predicament, the couple was forced to swim to a buoy about a mile from shore.—
Abigail Adams,
PEOPLE,
17 Apr. 2026
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Gonzales has been in a similar predicament for many months longer.—
Mike Lillis,
The Hill,
14 Apr. 2026
Noun
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From the tangle in your computer cord to the mess your cat made of your knitting basket, knots are everywhere in daily life.—
Erica Klarreich,
Quanta Magazine,
22 Apr. 2026
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Plus, its tangle-free brush system has self-adjusting rubber brushes to prevent clogging — a convenient detail that could have wrangled both my husky’s fur and my long hair.—
Sian Babish,
PEOPLE,
19 Apr. 2026
Noun
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For policymakers, the crisis caused by the Iran war poses a dilemma.—
Fabiano Maisonnave,
Los Angeles Times,
26 Apr. 2026
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This dilemma unfolded as delegates still waited to hear from all three gubernatorial candidates before casting a vote for that respective nominee.—
Tim Dunn,
Boston Herald,
25 Apr. 2026
Noun
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The Spain midfielder fed a superb pass forward to beat the hosts’ offside trap, and Fermín did the rest by firing past David Soria.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
25 Apr. 2026
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Methane traps around 80 times as much heat as CO2 over a 20-year horizon, making the emissions from a buildout of this scale difficult to quantify but impossible to ignore.—
Tejasri Gururaj,
Interesting Engineering,
24 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Some Cypress Village residents are beseeching the city to keep it that way, even as the HOA applies to let the pickle balling resume.—
Teri Sforza,
Oc Register,
24 Apr. 2026
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Much of the automobile industry is in a pickle.—
Jamie Lincoln Kitman,
Rolling Stone,
24 Apr. 2026
Noun
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When their news anchor (Peter Finch) has a nervous breakdown on the air, suddenly their ratings turn around, bringing on a moral morass only some of them are prepared to face.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
20 Mar. 2026
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And that concludes our journey through the morass.—
Steven Louis Goldstein,
New York Times,
13 Mar. 2026
Noun
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The wind also died down as warm, humid air settled over the old-growth cypress swamp on which the course was built for much of the round before a breeze returned late in the day.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
25 Apr. 2026
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About 65 miles away, firefighters continue battling the massive blaze in Clinch County, where the fire has spread rapidly through dry forest and swamp areas, making containment difficult.—
Christopher Harris,
CBS News,
23 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Such fluidity also extends to Amrum itself, where the land and water ebb and flow into one another, forming mudflats and murky patches of quicksand.—
David Opie,
IndieWire,
15 Apr. 2026
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In our view, the only way to escape this play-in quicksand is to pick one of the three aforementioned paths.—
Barry Jackson,
Miami Herald,
10 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Quagmire.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/quagmire. Accessed 30 Apr. 2026.
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