Morass
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle Dutch moeras (“marsh, swamp”), altered with influence from Middle Dutch moer (“moor”). Ultimately from Old French mareis, from Proto-West Germanic *marisk. Doublet of marish and marsh. Compare moor and quagmire.
Pronunciation
- IPA (General American): /məˈɹæs/, /moˈɹæs/
- Rhymes: -æs
Noun
- A tract of soft, wet ground; a marsh; a fen.
- “Seven miles to the north of Venice, the banks of sand, which near the city rise little above low-water mark, attain by degrees a higher level, and knit themselves at last into fields of salt morass, raised here and there into shapeless mounds, and intercepted by narrow creeks of sea.”
- (figurative) Anything that entraps or makes progress difficult.
- “I wrote to Sacramento about that historical marker, and they've been kicking it around their bureaucratic morass for months.”