Adjacent Words

Mire definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

MIRE, n. Deep mud; earth so wet and soft as to yield to the feet and to wheels.
MIRE, v.t. To plunge and fix in mire; to set or stall in mud. We say, a horse, an ox or a carriage is mired, when it has sunk deep into mud and its progress is stopped.
1. To soil or daub with mud or foul matter.
MIRE, v.i. To sink in mud, or to sink so deep as to be unable to move forward.
MIRE, n. An ant. [See Pismire.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot [syn: mire, quagmire, quag, morass, slack]
2: deep soft mud in water or slush; "they waded through the slop" [syn: slop, mire]
3: a difficulty or embarrassment that is hard to extricate yourself from; "the country is still trying to climb out of the mire left by its previous president"; "caught in the mire of poverty" v
1: entrap; "Our people should not be mired in the past" [syn: entangle, mire]
2: cause to get stuck as if in a mire; "The mud mired our cart" [syn: mire, bog down]
3: be unable to move further; "The car bogged down in the sand" [syn: grind to a halt, get stuck, bog down, mire]
4: soil with mud, muck, or mire; "The child mucked up his shirt while playing ball in the garden" [syn: mire, muck, mud, muck up]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Old Norse my?rr; akin to Old English m?s marsh — more at moss Date: 14th century 1. wet spongy earth (as of a bog or marsh) 2. heavy often deep mud or slush 3. a troublesome or intractable situation <found themselves in a mire of debt> • miry adjective II. verb (mired; miring) Date: 15th century transitive verb 1. a. to cause to stick fast in or as if in mire b. to hamper or hold back as if by mire ; entangle 2. to cover or soil with mire intransitive verb to stick or sink in mire

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 a stretch of swampy or boggy ground. 2 mud, dirt. --v. 1 tr. & intr. plunge or sink in a mire. 2 tr. involve in difficulties. Phrases and idioms: in the mire in difficulties. Etymology: ME f. ON m|rr f. Gmc, rel. to MOSS

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Mire Mire, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Mired; p. pr. & vb. n. Miring.] 1. To cause or permit to stick fast in mire; to plunge or fix in mud; as, to mire a horse or wagon. 2. To soil with mud or foul matter. Smirched thus and mired with infamy. --Shak.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Mire Mire, v. i. To stick in mire. --Shak.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Mire Mire, n. [AS. m[=i]re, m?re; akin to D. mier, Icel. maurr, Dan. myre, Sw. myra; cf. also Ir. moirbh, Gr. ?.] An ant. [Obs.] See Pismire.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Mire Mire, n. [OE. mire, myre; akin to Icel. m?rr swamp, Sw. myra marshy ground, and perh. to E. moss.] Deep mud; wet, spongy earth. --Chaucer. He his rider from the lofty steed Would have cast down and trod in dirty mire. --Spenser. Mire crow (Zo["o]l.), the pewit, or laughing gull. [Prov. Eng.] Mire drum, the European bittern. [Prov. Eng.]

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. You can refer to an unpleasant or difficult situation as a mire of some kind. (LITERARY) ...a mire of poverty and ignorance. N-SING: oft N of n 2. Mire is dirt or mud. (LITERARY) ...the muck and mire of sewers and farmyards.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

mir.

See CHALKSTONE; CLAY; MARSH.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. Mud, ooze, slime. II. v. n. Sink in mud.

Moby Thesaurus

adhere, baygall, befoul, begrime, bemire, bemud, besmirch, besmoke, blacken, bog, bog down, bottom, bottomland, bottoms, buffalo wallow, cesspool, clay, cleave, cling, cloaca, cloaca maxima, cohere, decelerate, defile, detain, dirt, dirty, dirty up, drain, dump, dust, embroil, enmesh, ensnare, entangle, entrap, everglade, fen, fenland, garbage dump, glade, glop, grime, gumbo, gunk, hog wallow, holm, implicate, involve, marais, marish, marsh, marshland, meadow, mere, moor, moorland, morass, moss, muck, muck up, mud, mud flat, muddy, ooze, peat bog, quag, quagmire, quicksand, retard, salt marsh, scum, septic tank, set back, sewer, sink, sink in, slab, slacken, slime, slip, slob, slob land, slop, slosh, slough, slow down, sludge, slush, smear, smoke, smudge, snare, soil, soot, sough, splosh, squash, stick, stodge, sully, sump, swale, swamp, swampland, swill, taiga, tangle, tarnish, trap, wallow, wash