Quicksands

[kwik-sand] /ˈkwɪkˌsænd/

noun
1.
a bed of soft or loose sand saturated with water and having considerable depth, yielding under weight and therefore tending to suck down any object resting on its surface.
/ˈkwɪkˌsænd/
noun
1.
a deep mass of loose wet sand that submerges anything on top of it
n.

c.1300, from Middle English quyk “living” (see quick (adj.)) + sond “sand” (see sand (n.)). Old English had cwecesund, but this might have meant “lively strait of water.”
quicksand
(kwĭk’sānd’)
A deep bed of loose, smoothly rounded sand grains, saturated with water and forming a soft, shifting mass that yields easily to pressure and tends to engulf objects resting on its surface. Although it is possible for a person to drown while mired in quicksand, the human body is less dense than any quicksand and is thus not drawn or sucked beneath the surface as is sometimes popularly believed.

found only in Acts 27:17, the rendering of the Greek Syrtis. On the north coast of Africa were two localities dangerous to sailors, called the Greater and Lesser Syrtis. The former of these is probably here meant. It lies between Tripoli and Barca, and near Cyrene. The Lesser Syrtis lay farther to the west.