quaggyadj.

1596 M. Drayton Mortimeriados sig. C4 The raging flood..steepes the bancks within her watrie hoards, Supping the whir-pooles from the quaggie mears.

1610 P. Holland tr. W. Camden Brit. i. 499 Certaine uneven and quaggie miry plots.

1708 E. Ward Hudibras Redivivus (ed. 2) I. xii. 22 Her Arse trembl'd, when she run, Like quaggy Earth, when trod upon.

a1759 W. Collins in Trans. Royal Soc. Edinb. (1788) 1 ii. 69 O'er the wat'ry strath or quaggy moss.

1814 W. Scott Waverley I. xvi. 243 The path..was rough, broken, and in many places quaggy and unsound. View more context for this quotation

1867 W. Morris Life & Death of Jason xi. 188 A plain..with quaggy brooks cleft through.

1897 Longman's Mag. Oct. 474 In the quaggy ditch, where the reeds grow high.

1956 R. T. Peterson & J. Fisher Wild Amer. xxxiii. 356 The banks..were aproned by mud—quaggy and adhesive.

1969 P. Dickinson Pride of Heroes 98 Putting his foot into a quaggy area, which sent..stinking inky ooze between shoe and sock.

1991 Times 7 Mar. 20/1 He gunned the motor to a scream: churning us deeper and deeper into the quaggy filth.

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Mollasse, quaggie, swagging [etc.].

1619 T. Milles tr. P. Mexia et al. Αρχαιο-πλουτος i. vii. 26/2 Heate and trauaile are yrkesome to the Gaules quaggy bodies.

1694 P. A. Motteux Wks. F. Rabelais (1737) iv. ix. 37 A female called Pear..said to be quaggy and flabby.

1721 A. Ramsay Tartana 343 May she turn quaggy fat.

1748 S. Richardson Clarissa VII. lxxviii. 259 Behold her then, spreading the whole tumbled bed with her huge quaggy carcase.

1806 J. Beresford Miseries Human Life I. vi. 131 O the quaggy rascal!..I'd have given him a little bone to his fat.

1822 J. M. Good Study Med. II. 921 The cells [of dead bone] being filled with a corrupt sanies or spongy caruncles, so that the whole assumes a quaggy appearance.

1851 H. Melville Moby-Dick xxv. 124 A mature man who uses hair-oil..has probably got a quoggy spot in him.

1936 Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald 18 Oct. a5/3 They would place in the seat of power a quavering, quaggy dummy.

1968 G. Jones Hist. Vikings ii. iv. 139 Einar's late-acquired nickname..refers to his pendulous and quaggy belly.

1990 Oxf. Illustr. Hist. Christianity xix. 663 A garnish of stop-press addenda can only deflate the product—which may account for some quaggy patches in the prophetic books of the Bible.

1653 T. Gataker Vindic. Annot. Jer. 10.2 85 Considering the unsoundnesse and qagginesse of their [sc. Astrologers'] grounds.

1692 J. Shirley True Impartial Hist. Irel. (ed. 2) 105 The Season was very incommodious for marching, by reason of the rains and quagginess of the ground.

1895 A. Lang Angling Sketches 103 I tried..to wade through them within casting distance of the water, but was always driven off by the traitorous quagginess of the soil.

1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 692/1 Quagginess, a term used to indicate the defective condition of timber having shakes at the heart of the log.