quagmire: [16] The now virtually defunct word quag denoted a ‘marsh’, particularly one with a top layer of turf that moved when you trod on it. Combination with mire (which also originally meant ‘marsh’, and is related to English moss) produced quagmire. It is not known where quag came from, but its underlying meaning is generally taken to be ‘shake, tremble’, and it may ultimately be of imitative origin.
quagmire (n.)
1570s, "bog, marsh," from obsolete quag "bog, marsh" + mire (n.). Early spellings include quamyre (1550s), quabmire (1590s), quadmire (c. 1600). Extended sense of "difficult situation, inescapable bad position" is recorded by 1766; but this seems to have been not in common use in much of 19c. (absent in "Century Dictionary," 1902), but revived in a narrower sense in reference to military invasions in American English, 1965, with reference to Vietnam (popularized in the book title "The Making of a Quagmire" by David Halberstam).
雙語例句
1. His people had fallen further and further into a quagmire of confusion.
他的人民在混亂不安的泥潭里越陷越深。
來自柯林斯例句
2. We have no intention of being drawn into a political quagmire.
我們無意卷入一場政治困境。
來自柯林斯例句
3. My wellingtons got stuck in a quagmire.
我的威靈頓長靴陷在泥坑里.
來自《簡明英漢詞典》
4. He who tries to conceal his fault for fear of criticism will sink deeper and deeper in the quagmire of errors.
諱疾忌醫的人,錯誤越陷越深.
來自《簡明英漢詞典》
5. On their way was a quagmire which was difficult to get over.