Crossword clues for quandary
quandary
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Quandary \Quan"da*ry\, n.; pl. Quandaries. [Prob. fr. OE. wandreth adversity, perplexity, Icel. wandr[ae][eth]i difficulty, trouble, fr. vandr difficult.] A state of difficulty or perplexity; doubt; uncertainty.
Quandary \Quan"da*ry\, v. t.
To bring into a state of uncertainty, perplexity, or
difficulty. [Obs.]
--Otway.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"state of perplexity," 1570s, of unknown origin, perhaps a quasi-Latinism based on Latin quando "when? at what time?; at the time that, inasmuch," pronomial adverb of time, related to qui "who" (see who). Originally accented on the second syllable.
Wiktionary
n. A state of not knowing what to decide; a state of difficulty or perplexity; a state of uncertainty, hesitation or puzzlement; a pickle; a predicament.
WordNet
n. a situation from which extrication is difficult especially an unpleasant or trying one; "finds himself in a most awkward predicament"; "the woeful plight of homeless people" [syn: predicament, plight]
state of uncertainty or perplexity especially as requiring a choice between equally unfavorable options [syn: dilemma]
Wikipedia
Quandary may refer to:
- Dr. Quandary, a fictional character in the video game The Secret Island of Dr. Quandary
- Mount Quandary, a mountain of Antarctica
- Quandary Peak, the highest summit of the Tenmile Range in Colorado
Usage examples of "quandary".
He had been puzzling over this while he flew halfway around the globe, and the quandary was still with him.
Sime Anderson stood in the queue outside the dining car, pondering a common quandary of wartime-whether to propose marriage before going off to serve in a distant place.
Yet, George -- and here I am at a quandary -- I am exceedingly reluctant to take the next step.
I could hear the outcry from all those deprived by him of their precious drug which made me weigh in my mind the good of the one against the good of the many, a quandary made all the more difficult by the one in this case having dedicated his whole life to the many.
However, that does leave me in a bit of a quandary, as I have clearly burned my bridges behind me.
He looked as though she presented some deep quandary or puzzle to him.
He could see her biting at the inside of her lip, apparently in a quandary over what she should do.
Thankful for a distraction to take her mind off what was probably just one of those unanswerable little quandaries that life sometimes handed out, she tossed it on the table and went to answer the door.
Aurelia exerted that formidable strength of hers and demonstrated to Lucius Decumius that she was not to be gainsaid, he solved his quandary by moving his protection business to the outer Sacra Via and the Vicus Fabricii, where the local colleges were lacking in such enterprise.
Cornwell turns many of the traditional Arthurian episodes into examples of moral quandaries.
Enciso was in a quandary what to do, but Balboa had been on that coast before, on his first voyage out from Spain, and knew of an Indian village on the Darien River where they might find food and shelter.
This strange solution to the Maker Quandary -- this turning of Makers into the probes themselves - will soon arrive here, a frothing mass of multiformed human beings.
Bill paced his dressing room, a funny, narrow, corridorlike room that looked out over the theater, admitting that he was in a quandary as to whether he should just pull up stakes and move to England or stay in America.
The physicists, informationists, exobiologists found themselves in a quandary.
Her quandary at the moment was which paralegals to terminate and which lawyers to force into part-time work.