quicksand
from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
quicksand
n 1: a treacherous situation that tends to entrap and destroy
2: a pit filled with loose wet sand into which objects are
sucked down
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Quicksand \Quick"sand`\, n.
Sand easily moved or readily yielding to pressure;
especially, a deep mass of loose or moving sand mixed with
water, sometimes found at the mouth of a river or along some
coasts, and very dangerous, from the difficulty of
extricating a person who begins sinking into it.
[1913 Webster]
Life hath quicksands, -- Life hath snares!
--Longfellow.
[1913 Webster]
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
110 Moby Thesaurus words for "quicksand":
baygall, bind, bog, bottom, bottomland, bottoms, breakers ahead,
buffalo wallow, cardhouse, cause for alarm, clutch, complication,
coral heads, crisis, crunch, danger, dangerous ground,
embarrassing position, embarrassment, emergency, endangerment,
everglade, fen, fenland, fine how-do-you-do, gaping chasm,
gathering clouds, glade, hazard, hell to pay, hobble, hog wallow,
holm, hot water, house of cards, how-do-you-do, imbroglio,
imperilment, ironbound coast, jam, jeopardy, ledges, lee shore,
marais, marish, marsh, marshland, meadow, menace, mere, mess, mire,
mix, moor, moorland, morass, moss, mud, mud flat, parlous straits,
pass, peat bog, peril, pickle, pinch, pitfall, plight, predicament,
pretty pass, pretty pickle, pretty predicament, quagmire,
quicksands, risk, rockbound coast, rocks, rocks ahead, salt marsh,
sandbank, sandbar, sands, scrape, shallows, shoals, slob land,
slough, sough, spot, squeeze, stew, sticky wicket, storm clouds,
strait, straits, sump, swale, swamp, swampland, taiga, thin ice,
threat, tight spot, tight squeeze, tightrope, tricky spot,
undercurrent, undertow, unholy mess, wallow, wash
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