Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Soft, wet, and yielding underfoot; marshy or boggy: Describes ground or terrain that is waterlogged, muddy, and unstable, often causing one's feet to sink.

Examples of Usage

• Adjective:
  • After the heavy rains, the field became too quaggy for the cattle to cross.
  • Hikers should avoid the quaggy paths near the riverbank during the spring thaw.

Advanced Usage

• Descriptive of texture or consistency: Can be used metaphorically to describe something soft, unstable, or lacking firmness, though this is less common.
  • The artist mixed the paint to a quaggy consistency before applying it to the canvas.

Variants and Related Words

• Quag (n, archaic): A marshy or boggy spot; a quagmire.
• Quagmire (n): A soft, boggy area of land that gives way underfoot; a complex or difficult situation.
  • The political scandal became a quagmire for the administration.

Synonyms

• Boggy: Pertaining to or resembling a bog; wet and spongy.
• Marshy: Characteristic of a marsh; waterlogged and soft.
• Miry: Full of or resembling mire (deep mud); muddy.
• Swampy: Like a swamp; saturated with water.
• Soggy: Saturated with liquid, especially water; heavy with moisture.

Antonyms

• Arid: Very dry, having little or no rain.
• Firm: Solid, compact, and resistant to pressure.
• Dry: Free from moisture or liquid.

Related Idioms

• To be in a quagmire: To be stuck in a difficult, complicated, or inextricable situation.
  • The negotiations are in a quagmire, with no clear resolution in sight.

Adjective

1. (of soil) soft and watery
   • the ground was boggy under foot
   • a marshy coastline
   • miry roads
   • wet mucky lowland
   • muddy barnyard
   • quaggy terrain
   • the sloughy edge of the pond
   • swampy bayous