Quicksand vs. Swamp: What's the Difference?

Quicksand and Swamp Definitions
Quicksand
Sand that is mixed with water in a collected mass and yields easily to pressure so that objects on its surface tend to sink and become engulfed.
Swamp
An area of low-lying land that is frequently flooded, especially one dominated by woody plants.
Quicksand
Often quicksands A place or situation into which entry can be swift and sudden but from which extrication can be difficult or impossible
"This theory of the future entrapped [them] in the quicksands of Vietnam" (Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.).
Swamp
A lowland region saturated with water.
Quicksand
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.
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Swamp
A situation or place fraught with difficulties and imponderables
A financial swamp.
Quicksand
Anything that pulls one down or buries one metaphorically
The quicksands of youth...
Swamp
To drench in or cover with or as if with water.
Quicksand
Sand easily moved or readily yielding to pressure; especially, a deep mass of loose or moving sand mixed with water, sometimes found at the mouth of a river or along some coasts, and very dangerous, from the difficulty of extricating a person who begins sinking into it.
Life hath quicksands, - Life hath snares!
Swamp
To inundate or burden; overwhelm
She was swamped with work.
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Quicksand
A treacherous situation that tends to entrap and destroy
Swamp
(Nautical) To fill (a ship or boat) with water to the point of sinking it.
Quicksand
A pit filled with loose wet sand into which objects are sucked down
Swamp
To become full of water or sink.
Swamp
A piece of wet, spongy land; low ground saturated with water; soft, wet ground which may have a growth of certain kinds of trees, but is unfit for agricultural or pastoral purposes.
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Swamp
A type of wetland that stretches for vast distances, and is home to many creatures which have adapted specifically to that environment.
Swamp
(figurative) A place or situation that is foul or where progress is difficult.
Swamp
To drench or fill with water.
The boat was swamped in the storm.
Swamp
(figurative) To overwhelm; to make too busy, or overrun the capacity of.
I have been swamped with paperwork ever since they started using the new system.
Swamp
(figurative) To plunge into difficulties and perils; to overwhelm; to ruin; to wreck.
Swamp
Wet, spongy land; soft, low ground saturated with water, but not usually covered with it; marshy ground away from the seashore.
Gray swamps and pools, waste places of the hern.
A swamp differs from a bog and a marsh in producing trees and shrubs, while the latter produce only herbage, plants, and mosses.
Swamp
To plunge or sink into a swamp.
Swamp
To cause (a boat) to become filled with water; to capsize or sink by whelming with water.
Swamp
Fig.: To plunge into difficulties and perils; to overwhelm; to ruin; to wreck.
The Whig majority of the house of Lords was swamped by the creation of twelve Tory peers.
Having swamped himself in following the ignis fatuus of a theory.
Swamp
To sink or stick in a swamp; figuratively, to become involved in insuperable difficulties.
Swamp
To become filled with water, as a boat; to founder; to capsize or sink; figuratively, to be ruined; to be wrecked.
Swamp
Low land that is seasonally flooded; has more woody plants than a marsh and better drainage than a bog
Swamp
A situation fraught with difficulties and imponderables;
He was trapped in a medical swamp
Swamp
Drench or submerge or be drenched or submerged;
The tsunami swamped every boat in the harbor
Swamp
Fill quickly beyond capacity; as with a liquid;
The basement was inundated after the storm
The images flooded his mind