[ME. (f. QUICK a. 10), = Du. kwikzand, G. quick-, Da. kvik-, Sw. qvicksand, Icel. kviksandr; but it is doubtful whether all of these are independent formations.]
1. A bed of extremely loose wet sand, easily yielding to pressure and thus readily swallowing up any heavy object resting on it. Quicksands are frequent on some coasts, and are very dangerous to travellers, stranded ships, etc.
14[?]. Burlesque, in Reliq. Antiq. (1841), I. 82. .vij. acurs of londe betwyxe Dover and Qwykkesand.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., ccxliv. (1482), 304. He brought hem thurgh a quyke sand and so in to an Ile.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 128. It is in manner of a quycke sande that harde it is for any thynge to goe ouer.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 753. Uncertaine sands not to be trusted, but ready to catch and swallow, they call them Quick-sands.
c. 1700. Prior, The Ladle, 26. Amphitrite clears his way From rocks and quicksands in the sea.
1784. Cowper, Tiroc., 870. Conscious that there lay … quicksands in his way.
1851. Mayne Reid, Scalp Hunt., v. 39. I was sinking in a quicksand.
b. fig. Applied to things (more rarely to persons) having the absorbent, yielding or treacherous character of a quicksand.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., V. iv. 26. What [is] Clarence, but a Quick-sand of Deceit?
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., IV. iv. H 4. I am a poore poore Orphant;… the very Ouze, The quick sand that deuours all miserie.
1608. Middleton, Trick to Catch Old One, I. i. Swallowed in the quicksands of law-quillets.
1697. Jos. Woodward, Relig. Soc., x. (1704), 157. Self-conceit … is a quicksand in which thousands have been swallowed up.
1781. Cowper, Progr. Err., 552. Sinking in the quicksand he defends, He dies disputing.
1879. Church, Spenser, 161. He once more tried the quicksands of the Court.
attrib. a. 1616. Beaum. & Fl., Bonduca, II. i. Fling their fame and fortunes Into this Britain gulf, this quicksand ruin.
2. Without article: Loose yielding sand.
1838. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 151/1. It passes through quicksand, clay [etc.].
1859. Marcy, Prairie Trav., iii. 75. A man incurs no danger in walking over quicksand provided he step rapidly.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Quicksand, sand which is … shifting, easily movable or semi-liquid.
Hence Quicksand v. in pass., to be stuck in a quicksand. Quicksanded a., full of quicksands. fig. Quicksandy a., of the nature of a quicksand.
1614. T. Adams, Phys. from Heaven, Wks. 1861, I. 358. The rotten, moorish, quicksandy grounds, that some have set their edifices on.
1618. Mynshul, Ess. Prison, Jaylors, 30. Many men … forsake the calmes of their owne happy fortunes, to arriue on these quicksanded Shores.
1899. Westm. Gaz., 20 May, 5/2. The animal and the cart became quicksanded.
