Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definition: Quicksand |
QuicksandNoun1. A pit filled with loose wet sand into which heavy objects sink. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "quicksand" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1591. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Dream Interpretation | To find yourself in quicksand while dreaming, you will meet with loss and deceit. If you are unable to overcome it, you will be involved in overwhelming misfortunes. For a young woman to be rescued by her lover from quicksand, she will possess a worthy and faithful husband, who will still remain her lover. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Literature | Quicksand is sand which shifts its place as if it were alive. (See Quick .). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Mining | A mass or bed of fine sand, that consists of smooth rounded grains with little mutual adherence and that is usually saturated with water flowing upward through the voids, forming a semiliquid, highly mobile mass that yields easily to pressure. See also:running groundSyn:running sand. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Deception | Phrase: "keep the word of promise to the ear and break it to the hope"; fronti nulla fides; "ah that deceit should steal such gentle shapes"; "a quicksand of deceit"; decipimur specie recti; falsi crimen; fraus est celare fraudem; lupus in fabula; "so smooth, he daubed his vice with show of virtue". |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Quicksand |
| English words defined with "quicksand": Sirt, Syrt, Syrtic, Syrtis ♦ Tubbing. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "quicksand": breast board ♦ Haase system ♦ lags ♦ running san ♦ torrents. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "quicksand": Syrtic. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Snakes, alligators, quicksand all bent on one thing: destruction. (Bride of the Monster; writing credit: Edward D. Wood Jr.; Alex Gordon) I found the seer's body in the quicksand. (Krull; writing credit: Stanford Sherman) | |
Lyrics | She's got loving like quicksand (Hush; performing artist: Deep Purple) The quicksand of time (Isn't Life Strange; performing artist: The Moody Blues) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Quicksand (1950) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Consumer Goods | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | ![]() | Pie supper for benefit of Quicksand School near Jackson. Breathitt County, Kentucky. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Hannah More | Luxury! more perilous to youth than storms or quicksand, poverty or chains. |
Schiller | Genuine morality is preserved only in the school of adversity; a state of continuous prosperity may easily prove a quicksand to virtue. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| "Quicksand" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 97.56% of the time. "Quicksand" is used about 41 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 97.56% | 40 | 54,274 |
| Noun (proper) | 2.44% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 41 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
1. Quicksand, KY |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "quicksand": quicksand-like. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "quicksand"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | rërë thithëse, rëra të lëvizshme. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | الوعث رمل سيار, رمل مغرق. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | плаващ пясък (floating earth). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 流沙 (Quicksands). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | tekoucí písek, pohyblivý písek, kuřavka. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | kviksand (drift sand, drifting sand, driftsand, running sand), flyvesand (aeolian sand, blown sand, drift sand, drifting sand, driftsand, eolian sand, running sand, wind-blown sand). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | drijfzand (quicksands). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | movsablo (quicksands), dronmarĉejo (quicksands). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | ماسه متحرک , تله (Grin, Hook, Noose, Pitfall, Snare, Snarl, Train, Trepanation), ریگ روان , دام (Ambush, Decoy, Grin, Net, Noose, Pitfall, Snare, Toil, Trap). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | lentohiekka (driftsand), kinoshiekka (drift sand, drifting sand, driftsand, running sand), juoksuhiekka (Bull's liver, drift sand, drifting sand, driftsand, running sand), ajohiekka (drift-sand). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | sables mouvants, sable mouvant, sable flottant, sable boulant. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Treibsand (quick sand, shifting sands), Triebsand (drift sand, drifting sand, driftsand, running sand). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | κινητή άμμοσ, κινούμενη άμμος (drift sand, drifting sand, driftsand, running sand), σύρτισ, βούρκοσ (mud, puddle, sludge), υγρά άμμοσ υποχωρούσα υπό τουσ ποδάσ. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | חול טובע י (driftsand). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | fosóhomok, folyós homok. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | sabbie mobili (drift sand, drifting sand, driftsand, running sand), sabbia mobile (drift sand, drifting sand, driftsand, running sand). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 流 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | りゅうしゃ (imperial carriage), りゅうさ. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | traie sluggee, muc gheinnee, geinniagh vio. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | icksandquay areia movediça (drift sand, drifting sand, driftsand, running sand). (various references) nisipuri mişcãtoare. (various references) плывун. (various references) živi pesak (shifting sands). (various references) arena movediza (drift sand, drifting sand, driftsand, running sand). (various references) kvicksand (floating earth). (various references) ทราย"ู". (various references) kayan kum, hareketli kum, bataklık kumu (shifting sands), bataklık (bog, boggy, everglade, Fen, Marsh, morass, moss, muskeg, quag, quagmire, sink, Slough, swamp, swampy), batak (bog, boggy, gutter, in carey street, marsh, mire, miry, morass, quag, quagmire, sink, Slough, swamp), çıkmaz (cleft stick, crunch, culde-sac, dead, dead end, deadlock, den, dilemma, extreme, fix, impasse, inerasable, predicament, quag, quagmire, scrape, stalemate, toughie). (various references) сипучий пісок, пливун. (various references) cát lún, cát lầy, cát chảy. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | syrtim. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "quicksand": quicksands. (additional references) | |
| |
"Quicksand" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: quicksands, Quicksons, Rucksana. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "quicksand" (pronounced kwi"ksa'nd) |
| 4 | -s a' n d | ampersand. |
| 3 | -a' n d | armband, backhand, Badland, bandstand, beforehand, broadband, contraband, cropland, dreamland, fairyland, Fantasyland, farmhand, farmland, Fatherland, firebrand, flatland, forehand, freehand, grandstand, grassland, handstand, headband, heartland, hinterland, homeland, inland, longhand, lowland, mainland, marshland, Midland, moorland, motherland, newsstand, nightstand, Northland, outland, overland, parkland, reprimand, seastrand, secondhand, shorthand, Southland, spaceband, stagehand, sunland, Timberland, undermanned, wasteland, wetland, Wonderland, woodland. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-d-i-k-n-q-s-u" | |
-3 letters: acinus, canids, nicads, quacks, quicks, unsaid. | |
-4 letters: acids, adunc, ankus, asdic, cadis, caids, cains, canid, dicks, dinks, ducks, dunks, incus, kadis, kains, kinas, kinds, nicad, nicks, nidus, qaids, quack, quads, quais, quasi, quick, quids, quins, scudi, snack, snick, snuck, squad, squid, unais, uncia. | |
-5 letters: acid, aids, ains, akin, ands, anis, anus, asci, auks. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-d-i-k-n-q-s-u" | |
+1 letter: quicksands. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Familiar 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Cities 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.