mire

1 of 2

noun

1
: wet spongy earth (as of a bog or marsh)
the mire is relieved only by small stretches of open dry forestSaturday Review
2
: heavy often deep mud or slush
The troops trudged onward through the mire.
3
: a troublesome or intractable situation
found themselves in a mire of debt
miry adjective

mire

2 of 2

verb

mired; miring

transitive verb

1
a
: to cause to stick fast in or as if in mire
The car was mired in the muck.
b
: to hamper or hold back as if by mire : entangle
The company has been mired in legal problems.
2
: to cover or soil with mire
his mired boots

intransitive verb

: to stick or sink in mire
a road in which horses and wagons mired regularlyEdmund Arnold

Examples of mire in a Sentence

Noun The troops marched onward through the muck and the mire. played on a football field that was thick with mire Verb the sight of the standard, which had emerged from the battle mangled and mired, still stirred the soldiers' hearts the case has been mired in probate court for years
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Infusion of local and federal dollars into transit and housing At the start of 2023, the county faced looming fiscal cliffs, with some departments, including transit, already sinking into a financial mire. Journal Sentinel, 19 Mar. 2024 Emily Goodstein, a small-business owner in D.C., similarly views the bed, in particular, as a pristine place that should remain separate from the mire of the outside world. Rachel Kurzius, Washington Post, 11 Jan. 2024 Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto Apparently the swamp in Washington, D.C., is not a political but a bureaucratic mire. Mark P. Mills, WSJ, 8 Aug. 2023 That suited corporate arts funders, who didn’t have to worry about stepping into a political mire. Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 7 Sep. 2023 Some were tasked with pulling electrical cords out of the mire while others attempted to tidy up the bedlam. Morena Duwe, Los Angeles Times, 10 Sep. 2023 Bloom’s methodical, risk-averse approach to roster-building as chief baseball officer represented a potential impediment to the Red Sox emerging from the mire of mediocrity. Alex Speier, BostonGlobe.com, 15 Sep. 2023 Most people who have been in the mire of heartbreak will have felt pain in their body somewhere. Eleanor Morgan, refinery29.com, 13 July 2023 Crumbled pistachios climb over the mire like neon green moss, making a bed for fuzzy sprouts of spearmint and peppermint, and ripe blueberries as fat and glossy as sapphires. Adam Erace, Travel + Leisure, 26 June 2023
Verb
The last time San Diego County saw a comparable exodus of residents was in the early 1990s when the region was mired in a deep recession and the jobless rate had surged to nearly 8 percent. Lori Weisberg, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 Mar. 2024 His tenure was mired in controversy and plagued by civil unrest. Alexandra Banner, CNN, 12 Mar. 2024 Many families in the camps, refugees displaced and dispossessed by the 1948 or 1967 wars, are mired in multigenerational poverty. Taylor Luck, The Christian Science Monitor, 7 Mar. 2024 The Grove home was later drawn into District 3 as part of a citywide plan to change the voting map in 2022 — a decision that is also mired in long-running litigation. Joey Flechas, Miami Herald, 1 Mar. 2024 The action remake has been mired in controversy in recent months. Katcy Stephan, Variety, 27 Feb. 2024 Its final hours in the moon’s orbit were mired in glitches, including a communications breakdown prior to its landing, as well as an issue with the spacecraft’s laser instruments that failed to operate, causing a two-hour delay in its landing. Brian Bushard, Forbes, 23 Feb. 2024 For patients and their doctors, in vitro fertilization, or IVF, had long been associated with hope and reassurance for the future; in Alabama, seeking or providing infertility treatment is now mired in anxiety. Kim Bellware, Washington Post, 22 Feb. 2024 Levine says Zelenskyy is facing harsh realities of a non-NATO nation mired in a seemingly endless war, highly dependent on assistance from the preoccupied West. John Bacon, USA TODAY, 22 Feb. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'mire.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun and Verb

Middle English, from Old Norse mȳrr; akin to Old English mōs marsh — more at moss

First Known Use

Noun

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

15th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1a

Time Traveler
The first known use of mire was in the 14th century

Dictionary Entries Near mire

Cite this Entry

“Mire.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mire. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

mire

1 of 2 noun
1
: wet spongy ground (as of a bog or marsh)
2
: heavy often deep mud or slush
miry adjective

mire

2 of 2 verb
mired; miring
1
a
: to sink or stick fast in mire
2
: to soil with mud or slush

Medical Definition

mire

noun
: any of the objects on the arm of an ophthalmometer that are used to measure astigmatism by the reflections they produce in the cornea when illuminated

More from Merriam-Webster on mire

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