Make Your Point > Archived Issues > QUAGMIRE

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connect this word to others: Say you're caught in some dilemma, some troublesome situation. You might refer to your situation as a jam, a scrape, a tight spot, or a pickle--if you want to sound folksy. Ghost of Babe Ruth: I'm here 'cause you're in some kind of a pickle, right? A baseball with my John Hancock on it...went over a fence and you can't get it back, right? But if you want to sound serious and sophisticated, you might refer to your situation as a quagmire. Or, an imbroglio, a labyrinth, a quandary, or even a Scylla and Charybdis. Can you explain how these terms differ slightly from each other in meaning? make your point with... "QUAGMIRE" Strictly speaking, mires, also called quagmires, are wet, squishy areas of land. Imagine how tricky it would be to work your way out of a quagmire, as your shoes keep sinking and sticking in the damp ground. More loosely speaking, a mire or a quagmire is a bad position or situation that's hard to get out of. Pronunciation: KWAG mire Part of speech: Noun, the countable kind: "this quagmire," "these quagmires." Other forms: The plural is "quagmires." "Quagmire" is also a verb: you can talk about people and things being quagmired, or being quagmired in some unpleasant mess or situation. How to use it: "Quagmire," with its weird assortment of consonants, is perfect for talking about awkward, difficult, uncomfortable situations. It's no coincidence when you meet a fictional character named Quagmire: he's either caught up in hideous circumstances himself (e.g., the Quagmire family in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, the ones who deal with house fires and kidnappings) or he drags others into hideous circumstances (e.g., Glenn Quagmire of Family Guy, the womanizer who does all kinds of things unfit for print in Make Your Point). Talk about someone's quagmire, or about someone being in a quagmire, getting caught in a quagmire, getting sucked into a quagmire, remaining trapped in a quagmire, extricating himself from a quagmire, and so on. Or, talk about the quagmire of something: "a quagmire of endless argument," "this quagmire of bureaucracy." Often we add an adjective and talk about legal quagmires, ethical quagmires, emotional quagmires, or diplomatic quagmires. And although it's usually a situation that we call a quagmire, we can get more figurative, like the creators of the fictional Quagmires mentioned above, and say that a person is a quagmire--that a person is a bog or a swamp or a pool of quicksand. Here's Fox News: "Lyndon B. Johnson was a bully and an ethical quagmire." examples: "Here’s what’s going on: The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program is an administrative quagmire unlike nearly anything I’ve covered in a quarter-century as a journalist."    — Ron Lieber, The New York Times, 12 April 2019 "[Vladimir Lenin] alone could have led Russia into the enchanted quagmire; he alone could have found the way back to the causeway. He saw; he turned; he perished. The strong illumination that guided him was cut off at the moment when he had turned resolutely for home. The Russian people were left floundering in the bog."    — Winston Churchill, as quoted in The Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill, 2010 has this page helped you understand "quagmire"? Awesome, I'm glad it helped! Thanks for letting me know! If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. study it: Explain the meaning of "quagmire" without saying "predicament" or "sticky situation." try it out: Fill in the blanks: "When (a bad situation got even worse), (someone) saw (no way, or only one way) out of the quagmire." Example: "When they realized the cargo they'd been hired to steal was medicine--medicine badly needed--the Firefly crew saw only one way out of the quagmire. The meds would go back." If you like, use this space to draft your sentence. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.) before you review, play: Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first. Our game this month is "Big Bang Thicket." In each issue, hack your way through the polysyllabic title of an episode of The Big Bang Theory, and use your knowledge of vocabulary to answer the question about what happens in that episode. From the previous issue:  In "The Separation Oscillation," do Penny and Leonard get closer and closer to separating or go back and forth between separating and staying together? Answer: They go back and forth. To oscillate is to swing to and fro, or to move back and forth between two points. Try this one today:  In "The Veracity Elasticity," does Amy stretch a budget or the truth? review this word: 1. A near opposite of A QUAGMIRE is A. A PIECE OF CAKE. B. ONE'S CUP OF TEA. C. A SHOT IN THE DARK. 2. Readers who become quagmired in the pages of the classics still reach for Cliff's Notes or SparkNotes, the _____ that saves them. A. lens B. rope C. light 1. A 2. B a final word: I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog:    36 ways to study words.    Why we forget words, & how to remember them.    How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.