tarpit

or tar pit

[ tahr-pit ]

noun

1. seepage of natural tar or asphalt, especially an accumulation that has acted as a natural trap into which animals have fallen and sunk and had their bones preserved.

Word History and Origins

Origin of tarpit¹

First recorded in 1830–40; tar ¹ + pit ¹

Example Sentences

Cities and environmental justice groups trying to put an end to oil operations run right into, well, a tarpit of grandfathered permits, aggressive oil companies, and arcane petro-chemical regulations.

From Los Angeles Times

They’re just a better flavor of the same poison that’s enabled corporate greed and the growing social inequality that maybe sent your uncle off into this tarpit in the first place.

From Salon

Social media is — let’s see — 1. murder on your self-esteem, 2. a ferocious productivity drain, 3. a gutturally-burbling tarpit of unwelcome political commentary, 4. used primarily for self-promotion, 5. something Trump enjoys and 6. a spectacularly-convenient way to keep track of all the worst people in your life, so yeah it makes perfect sense that this is one of the first things we pour into our brains in the morning.

From Golf Digest

As soon as he took over from Hillary Clinton as secretary of state in 2013, he plunged into the tarpit of Middle East peace negotiations with an enthusiasm neither his predecessor nor President Obama shared.

From New York Times

We can get caught int the policy vortex, see the tempting fractal nature of rule-making and fall into a tarpit we’ll never climb out of, or we can trust in our bodies, ourselves and our colleagues and remember what work is really for.

From Forbes