Quagmire

noun (also used as transitive verb, archaic/rare)

/ˈkwæɡ.maɪə(r)/

A complex, difficult or precarious situation that easily traps a person and from which it is hard to extricate oneself. (Literally: an area of soft, wet, boggy ground that yields underfoot.)

✍️ Usage in a UPSC answer

Successive governments, by deferring structural labour and land reforms, allowed the agrarian economy to sink into a quagmire of indebtedness from which smallholders could no longer extricate themselves.

Synonyms

predicamentmorassimbroglioentanglementimpassebog

Antonyms

solutionresolutionextricationfirm ground

🌱 Word Family

quag (n archaic), mire (n/v), mired (adj), quaggy (adj)

🔡 Root

English quag = bog/marsh (Old English cwabba = soft shaking thing) + Old Norse myrr = bog/swampy ground

📜 Etymology

From obsolete English quag "bog, marsh" (related to Old English cwabba, "something soft that shakes") + mire "swampy ground" (from Old Norse myrr "bog"). First attested mid-1500s; the figurative "inescapable predicament" sense from 1766.

🧠 Memory Hook

Hear "quag + mire" as a quaking, miry bog that swallows your boots: just as a swamp traps the feet, a quagmire traps you in a mess you cannot wade out of.

🛡️ Internal Security 📖 Seen in: Internal Security — Threats, Cyber Sec...

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