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7 dictionary results for: Quicksand
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
quick·sand       [kwik-sand] Pronunciation Key
–noun
a bed of soft or loose sand saturated with water and having considerable depth, yielding under weight and therefore tending to suck down any object resting on its surface.
[Origin: 1275–1325; ME qwykkesand. See quick, sand]

—Related forms
quicksandy, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
quick·sand       (kwĭk'sānd')  Pronunciation Key 
n.  
  1. A bed of loose sand mixed with water forming a soft shifting mass that yields easily to pressure and tends to engulf any object resting on its surface.
  2. A place or situation into which entry can be swift and sudden but from which extrication can be difficult or impossible. Often used in the plural: "This theory of the future entrapped [them] in the quicksands of Vietnam" (Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.)


[Middle English quyksond, living sand : quick, quyk, living; see quick + sand, sond, sand; see sand.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
quicksand 
1400, from M.E. quyk "living" (see quick) + sond "sand." O.E. had cwecesund, but this may have meant "lively strait of water."

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
quicksand

noun
1. a treacherous situation that tends to entrap and destroy 
2. a pit filled with loose wet sand into which objects are sucked down 

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
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The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
quicksand       (kwĭk'sānd')  Pronunciation Key 
A deep bed of loose, smoothly rounded sand grains, saturated with water and forming a soft, shifting mass that yields easily to pressure and tends to engulf objects resting on its surface. Although it is possible for a person to drown while mired in quicksand, the human body is less dense than any quicksand and is thus not drawn or sucked beneath the surface as is sometimes popularly believed.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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U.S. Gazetteer - Cite This Source - Share This

Quicksand, KY Zip code(s): 41363

U.S. Gazetteer, U.S. Census Bureau
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

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.

Life hath quicksands, -- Life hath snares! --Longfellow.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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