Word.ws English Dictionary

quicksand

/ˈkwɪkˌsænd/

quicksand noun: wet sand that appears firm but in which things readily sink, often found near rivers or coasts.

Noun

quicksand (countable and uncountable, plural quicksands)

  1. Wet sand that appears firm but in which things readily sink, often found near rivers or coasts.
    • My feet were firmly lodged in the quicksand, and the more I struggled the more I sank into it.
    Synonyms:
    syrtis, syrt
  2. (figuratively) Anything that metaphorically pulls one down or buries one; a treacherous, risky danger
    • the quicksands of youth

quicksand meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Telugu and Malayalam

quicksand in Urdu

دلدل, ریگ رواں

quicksand in Bengali

type of sand
চোরাবালি cōrabali

quicksand in Telugu

type of sand
దొంగయిసుక doṅgayisuka

quicksand in Malayalam

മണൽക്കുഴി, ചുഴിമണൽ, ചതി, അപകടംനിറഞ്ഞ അവസ്ഥ
More languagesFewer languages
quicksand in Kannada
ಉಸುಬು, ಕಳ್ಳುಸುಬು, ಕಳ್ಳುಸುಕು, ಕಳ್ಳಕೆಸರು
quicksand in Tagalog
kuminoy
quicksand in Arabic
رِمَال مُتَحَرِّكَة rimāl mutaḥarrika
quicksand in Malay
pasir jerlus
quicksand in Indonesian
pasir isap
quicksand in Persian
ماسه بادی mâsse bâdi
quicksand in Thai
ทรายดูด saai-dùut
quicksand in Vietnamese
cát lún

Synonyms of quicksand

Forms of quicksand

pluralquicksands

Plural of quicksand: quicksands

Origin of quicksand

From Middle English quyksande, from Old English cwecesand (“quicksand”), equivalent to quick (“living”) + sand. Cognate with Swedish kvicksand (“quicksand”), Icelandic kviksandur, kviksyndi (“quicksand”). More at quick, sand.

Words formed from quicksand

Questions about quicksand

What does quicksand mean?
Quicksand means wet sand that appears firm but in which things readily sink, often found near rivers or coasts.
What is quicksand in Urdu?
Quicksand in Urdu is دلدل, ریگ رواں. See Quicksand meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is quicksand?
Quicksand is a noun.
How do you pronounce quicksand?
Quicksand is pronounced /ˈkwɪkˌsænd/ (US).
What is the plural of quicksand?
The plural of quicksand is quicksands.

Words near quicksand in the dictionary

  1. quickmud
  2. quickness
  3. quicknesses
  4. quickplay
  5. quicks
  6. quicksand
  7. quicksandlike
  8. quicksands
  9. quicksandy
  10. quicksave
  11. quicksaved

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: quicksand (page history and authors); quicksand (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); quicksand (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); quicksand (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-StalJosA-Quicksand.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-quicksand.wav.

Cite this entry: “quicksand.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/quicksand. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.