Pl. syrtes. Also 6–7 sirtis. [L., a. Gr. Σύρτις, σύρτις, f. σύρειν to drag along, sweep away.] Proper name of two large quicksands (Syrtis major and minor) off the northern coast of Africa; hence gen. a quicksand.
[1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XV. cl[i]. (Bodl. MS.), lf. 166 b/1. Sirtes beþ places in þe see ful of grauel…. Sirtes beþ bi þe see of Egipte and ymedled þerwith in many places.]
1526. Tindale, Acts xxvii. 17. Fearynge lest we shulde have fallen into Syrtes [so Coverdale and Geneva; Great Bible the Syrtes, Rheims the Syrte; 1611 the quicke-sands; Vulg. Syrtim, Gr. τὴν Σύρτιν].
1552. Elyot, Cyrenaica … hath on the west the great Sirtis.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 939. Quencht in a Boggie Syrtis, neither Sea, Nor good dry Land.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, IV. 59. Here lies a barren Wast of thirsty Land, And there the Syrtes raise the moving Sand.
1755. Gentl. Mag., July, 321/2. This prodigious syrtis.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl., Lett. to Sir W. Phillips, 12 Sept. In crossing these treacherous Syrtes with a guide, we perceived a drowned horse.
b. pl. used as sing.
1646. G. Daniel, Addresse, 108, Wks. (Grosart), I. 13. The Labour’s over If from this Syrte’s wee our Sand recover. Ibid. (1648), Eclog., v. 124. The Syrtes of my Thought confounds my will.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 58. Somewhat undermined by the beating of the Sea, where it works its self into a Syrtes.
