Home US English morass

Definition of morass in English:

morass

Pronunciation /məˈras/ /məˈræs/

See synonyms for morass

Translate morass into Spanish

noun

  • 1An area of muddy or boggy ground.

    ‘in midwinter the track beneath this bridge became a muddy morass’
    • ‘We tend to take such well maintained paths for granted but on the mountain the contrast between the good path and the muddy morass is all too obvious.’
    • ‘Trails through the jungle growth were impassable by the muddy morass.’
    • ‘On the appointed day the Queen inspected a muddy, smelly morass.’
    • ‘The main landscape feature is endless peatbog, surrounded by marsh, leading into morasses, sloughs and quagmires.’
    • ‘These morasses usually had a green moss growing on them, and were most inviting to gallop over.’
    • ‘Not everyone likes these cobbled trails but not that long ago this path was thirty feet wide, a swathe of mud and peat, ever-widening as more and more walkers tried to avoid the morass in the middle.’
    • ‘This heavy foot traffic placed an intolerable burden on the old, original summit path and what had been a pleasant trail up the hillside had turned into a linear morass of mud and glaur.’
    • ‘The road leading into the village was a stinking morass of oil and dirt that resembled an airline crash site more then a driveable path.’
    • ‘‘I noticed some people removing some peat soil from a small morass,’ he writes.’
    • ‘So each morning and evening, 700 villagers strike out across dirt roads turned into a morass of mud and dung to deliver medicines to people with AIDS and tuberculosis.’
    quagmire, swamp, bog, marsh, mire, quag, marshland, peat bog, fen, slough, quicksand
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  • 2A complicated or confused situation.

    ‘she would become lost in a morass of lies and explanations’
    • ‘Their bond is deep, and they have found mutual understanding amid a morass of confusion.’
    • ‘But this whole issue has been lost in a morass of other complications.’
    • ‘Rumours persist too of other investments in properties and companies; of a morass of financial dealings so complicated that the police are having difficulty getting to the bottom of it all.’
    • ‘It must be said, however, that education policy is usually a morass of conflicting interests and alternative orientations.’
    • ‘It makes the last two years of Smith's life sound unbearable, a morass of depression, insomnia, paranoia, drug and alcohol abuse and overwork.’
    • ‘Foreign attempts to help run into a morass of bureaucracy and ideology.’
    • ‘At times it sounds like the ranting and raving of a somewhat unhinged mind, but then it takes a certain amount of guts to let people into your mind, into what seems to be a morass of obsessive paranoia.’
    • ‘The overall visa problem is really a morass of smaller problems that plague international students and visiting scientists.’
    • ‘Complex procedures were simplified and new game mechanics were used to keep players involved, without losing them in a morass of procedures.’
    • ‘The plot of the film is a morass of absolute stupidity.’
    • ‘I felt that the plans team was slowly sinking into a morass of detail.’
    • ‘The chain grew to 149 stores, but eventually collapsed in a morass of disputes.’
    • ‘The first years of the program were a morass of infighting, failed launches, and neglect.’
    • ‘The next two chapters on medieval India and the Middle Ages are more muddled, perhaps due the the confusing morass of the actual history of the period.’
    • ‘It's become a legal morass, muddied by claims of incompetence and backroom deals.’
    • ‘By his selections and approach, he has shown that he is determined to find a way through the racial morass that has bedevilled most of his predecessors.’
    • ‘We need designers who demonstrate exceptional comprehension: designers who are able to flesh out the meaning from the morass.’
    • ‘The minister said he hoped to streamline and simplify what he called the morass of laws governing alcohol sales, many of which pre-date the Irish State.’
    • ‘Time after time the police would charge, the protesters would flee and in the morass they would easily drag their intended target back behind police lines.’
    • ‘The whole country, the entire populace, should be discussing and debating this in an attempt to work our way out of the morass and design new beginnings.’
    • ‘And in the unfathomable morass of the benefits system, some women can end up in better financial circumstances if they have split from their partner.’
    confusion, chaos, muddle, tangle, entanglement, imbroglio, mix-up, jumble, clutter
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Origin

Late 15th century from Dutch moeras, alteration (by assimilation to moer ‘moor’) of Middle Dutch marasch, from Old French marais ‘marsh’, from medieval Latin mariscus.