mire

1 of 2

noun

ˈmī(-ə)r

Synonyms of mire next

: wet spongy earth (as of a bog or marsh)

the mire is relieved only by small stretches of open dry forest—

Saturday Review

: heavy often deep mud or slush

The troops trudged onward through the mire.

: a troublesome or intractable situation

found themselves in a mire of debt

miry

ˈmīr-ē

adjective

mire

2 of 2

verb

mired; miring

transitive verb

: to cause to stick fast in or as if in mire

The car was mired in the muck.

: to hamper or hold back as if by mire : entangle

The company has been mired in legal problems.

: 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 regularly—

Edmund Arnold

Example Sentences

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

The resulting mire of turbulent plasma and magnetic fields could help explain why the star is currently much brighter than the 400-day cycle would predict. —

Meghan Bartels, Scientific American, 15 May 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, 9 Nov. 2021 He’s crawled through the mire. —

Mark Olsen Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 3 Dec. 2021 Instead, the fractured and fractious streaming landscape is pulling HBO into the mire. —

Mary Mcnamara, Los Angeles Times, 12 Apr. 2023 The truck remained quite agricultural for subsequent decades, resolutely adept at off-roading through mire and muck, but quite unpleasant on the road. —

Brett Berk, Good Housekeeping, 4 Apr. 2023 The second season of Apple’s Emmy-sweeping comedy about an American college-football coach transported into the mire of the English Premier League takes a darker tone, villainizing one of its minor heroes and revealing that Ted’s folksy optimism is rooted in past tragedy. —

Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 9 Dec. 2021 In scenes of mist, mire and mayhem, countless lives are lost for the gain of a few hundred yards or a single hill. —

Roger Cohen, New York Times, 22 Feb. 2023 Organizations also expand by acquiring teams and assets, which further adds to the mire of tools. —

Nitin Kumar, Forbes, 27 Jan. 2023

Verb

Less than a week after the country’s blue-chip index notched a new record closing high, federal statisticians reported on Thursday that Europe’s largest economy is mired in a recession. —

Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 26 May 2023 Some of DeSantis’ rivals for the GOP nomination gleefully watched as DeSantis’ Twitter Spaces announcement was mired with technical difficulties. —

Ben Kamisar, NBC News, 25 May 2023 Needing to avoid relenting a big inning early while mired in a weeklong losing streak, Houser got a double play grounder to escape the inning. —

Journal Sentinel, 7 May 2023 Overall, though, the film fell flat, getting mired in wonky science about interdimensional portals. —

Brian Lowry, CNN, 5 May 2023 The search for a vaccine to RSV began in the 1960s, but has been mired by tragedy. —

Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 4 May 2023 In the 1950s, mired in the thick of the Cold War, a small group of educators — all White men at elite institutions — came up with an idea. —

David Perry, Washington Post, 27 Apr. 2023 Jesse Chavez came in with two runners aboard to face Cooper, who was hitless in four at-bats and mired in a .154 (6 for 39) slump. —

Paul Newberry, Sun Sentinel, 27 Apr. 2023 His overall approval rating remains mired at just over 42 percent, according to an aggregation of polls by the political website FiveThirtyEight, lower than 10 of the last 13 presidents at this point in their terms. —

Peter Baker, New York Times, 25 Apr. 2023 See More

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

See more words from the same century

Cite this Entry

Style

“Mire.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mire. Accessed 4 Jun. 2023.

Copy Citation

Kids Definition

mire

1 of 2 noun

ˈmī(ə)r

: wet spongy ground (as of a bog or marsh)

: heavy often deep mud or slush

miry

ˈmī(ə)r-ē

adjective

mire

2 of 2 verb

mired; miring

: to sink or stick fast in mire

: entangle sense 2, involve

: to soil with mud or slush

Medical Definition

mire

noun

ˈmī(ə)r

: 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