From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishquagmirequag‧mire /ˈkwæɡmaɪə, ˈkwɒɡ- $ ˈkwæɡmaɪr/ noun [countable usually singular] 1 WETan area of soft wet muddy ground In the rainy season the roads become a quagmire.2 COMPLICATEDa difficult or complicated situation The Balkan situation became a political and military quagmire.
Examples from the Corpus
quagmire• In early April it becomes a quagmire where people challenge their four-wheel-drives in the mud.• Torrential rain was quickly turning the building-site into a quagmire.• Still others have found themselves trapped in a horrendous and expensive quagmire of political, emotional, financial and legal issues.• Constant rain turned some of the walkways into quagmires.• For the U.S., the war in Vietnam was a moral and military quagmire.• But the prospect of hostage-taking opens up a new quagmire.• It may also distract its members from the present quagmire with legends of a storied past or promises of an ecstatic future.• Indeed, the inter-connections of this penal trinity of population, capacity and conditions form the heart of the reform quagmire.• There is little more that we can do about this quagmire.Origin quagmire (1500-1600) quag “soft wet ground” ((16-20 centuries)) (perhaps from quag “to shake” ((17-19 centuries))) + mire 