Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An area of low-lying, soggy ground.
  • noun Something that hinders, engulfs, or overwhelms.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A tract of low, soft, wet ground the drainage of which is insufficient either from its depressed situation or from its uniform flatness; a marsh; a swamp; a bog; a fen.
  • noun Synonyms Swamp, etc. See marsh.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A tract of soft, wet ground; a marsh; a fen.
  • noun (Min.) See Bog ore, under Bog.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A tract of soft, wet ground; a marsh; a fen.
  • noun Anything that entraps or makes progress difficult.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Dutch moeras, from Middle Dutch maras, from Old French mareis, probably of Germanic origin; see mori- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

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  • Something that hinders, engulfs, or overwhelms: a morass of detail.

    August 31, 2008