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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2
as in tangle
something that catches and holds a protracted custody dispute that became a judicial quagmire

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of quagmire And Russia’s continuing quagmire in Ukraine discredits any Russian claim to superpower status. Armstrong Williams, Orange County Register, 13 Jan. 2025 For three decades, websites large and small have depended on search to help build their readership; now they’re caught in a philosophical quagmire. Longreads, 19 Dec. 2024 Simply put, Democrats can escape their electoral quagmire by recognizing what successful liberal politicians understood until quite recently—that there's nothing compassionate or progressive about letting corporations exploit cheap foreign labor to undermine American workers. Paul Du Quenoy, Newsweek, 9 Jan. 2025 However, this path has led many young adults into a financial quagmire. Jack Kelly, Forbes, 7 Jan. 2025 See All Example Sentences for quagmire
Recent Examples of Synonyms for quagmire
Noun
  • Now, there are clearly two ways out of this predicament for Leeds United.
    Jordan Campbell, The Athletic, 26 Feb. 2025
  • Is there a way out of our divided country’s seemingly hopeless predicament?
    Jackie Strause, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • Focus on your waist, not just your weight As the size of a person’s belly grows, studies show the memory center of the brain shrinks and hallmark signs of Alzheimer’s disease can appear — namely beta-amyloid plaques and tau tangles.
    Sandee LaMotte, CNN, 25 Feb. 2025
  • Unwinding the tangle of sanctions — as well as countermeasures enacted by the Russian government — would be a long and complicated process.
    Patricia Cohen, New York Times, 24 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • Ben Colman, co-founder and CEO of Reality Defender, a company specializing in deepfake detection, weighed in on the designer's dilemma.
    Gordon G. Chang, Newsweek, 4 Mar. 2025
  • The political dilemma facing Trump and the Republicans is one that an earlier generation of conservative revolutionaries faced forty-odd years ago.
    John Cassidy, The New Yorker, 3 Mar. 2025
Noun
  • Later, the ladies end up falling into the trap of talking about politics at dinner (been there!).
    Dan Heching, CNN, 3 Mar. 2025
  • That dream became a reality four months later when, on February 11, scientists found young salmon in a trap several miles downstream from the egg deposit sites.
    Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • New foods include chicken bacon ranch waffle stick, pickle juice lemonade, flaming hot chili mac dog and more.
    Shafaq Patel, Axios, 28 Feb. 2025
  • Fact checked by Sarah Scott Think a hankering for pickle juice is just a weird pregnancy quirk?
    Hannah Silverman, Parents, 26 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • Shapiro, who launched crisis PR firm 10th Avenue Consulting in 2015 after his lengthy tenure in the federal government, would seem an unconventional choice for Lively given that the spiraling legal morass has no obvious political ties.
    Tatiana Siegel, Variety, 28 Feb. 2025
  • However, starting a process early in President Trump's second term could prove helpful given the resulting legal morass, depending on the mechanism that the EPA employs to repeal it.
    Andrew Freedman, Axios, 27 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • Efforts to create an EU presidency also floundered in a swamp of competing power centers and polysyllabic titles.
    Gordon G. Chang, Newsweek, 3 Mar. 2025
  • The video was recorded by writer and film producer Jennifer Berglund of Savannah, who reported another alligator appeared to pursue the male through the swamp after his display, officials said.
    Mark Price, Miami Herald, 26 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • Relying solely on perks in such an environment is like building a castle on quicksand.
    Ankita Singh, Forbes, 5 Mar. 2025
  • Escaping career quicksand requires you to create your own playbook based on what matters to you.
    Glenn Llopis, Forbes, 30 Dec. 2024

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Cite this Entry

“Quagmire.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/quagmire. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.

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