quicksands

Treacherous wet terrain

Quicksands is the plural of quicksand—loose, waterlogged sand that yields to pressure and can trap people or animals who step into it.

The word appears in figurative uses describing situations that pull you deeper the more you struggle: The project became a quicksands of competing demands.

The singular quicksand is far more common in both literal and metaphorical contexts.

instability

shifting

Changing position or form

unstableProne to sudden change
yieldingBending under pressure
liquefactionConversion to liquid state

saturation · viscosity · fluid · pressure · agitation · vibration · loose · unpredictable · collapse · give way

hazard

sinking

Falling through water

dangerExposure to harm
engulfmentComplete surrounding and absorption
suctionPulling via pressure difference

treacherous · peril · deathtrap · submersion · survival · rescue · struggle · suffocation · drowning · panic

metaphor

trap

Device for catching animals

snareDevice for catching prey
entrapmentDefense against induced criminality
quagmireSoft, wet ground

morass · pitfall · inescapable · stuck · mired · sinkhole · spiral · predicament · entanglement · web

terrain

mire

Boggy, waterlogged terrain

swampWaterlogged land with vegetation
marshGrassy waterlogged lowland
bogAcidic peat wetland

sediment · silt · estuary · delta · wetland · tidal flats · shoreline · riverbed · mudflat · waterlogged

Opposites

stability/solidity

quicksandssolid ground

Stable surface beneath

firm ground · bedrock · terra firma · solid rock · stable footing

safety/danger

quicksandssafe passage

Protected transit through danger

metaphorical entrapment

quicksandsfirm footing

solid ground · stability · security · safe harbor · freedom

Family

quicksand

Familiarity: Top 500,000
Profile: Known to kids · Used worldwide · Timeless · Concrete · Negative · Everyday, not technical · Rated G