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mire

UK/ˈmaɪə/US/ˈmaɪɚ/
nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,055 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: mires

A mire is deep mud, or a situation you cannot get out of. Stuck in the mire, a legal mire.

The figurative use is now commoner, and to be mired in something means unable to move. A real mire is a peat wetland and is one of the best carbon stores there is.

Godot13 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Definitions of mire

  1. 1nounmireDeep mud, or a situation you cannot get out of.C1

    “The whole project sank into a mire of consultations.”

mire is mud.

Where it comes from

Middle English mire comes from Old Norse myrr, a bog.

  1. Proto-Germanic

    *miuzijō

  2. Old Norse

    mýrr

  3. Middle English

    mire

  4. English, today

    mire

From Middle English mire, a borrowing from Old Norse mýrr, from Proto-Germanic miuzijō, whence also Swedish myr, Norwegian myr, Icelandic mýri, Dutch (in placenames, for example Mierlo). Related to meusą, whence Old English mēos, and musą, whence mos (English moss).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

mire in the wild

  • Bogs and fens, both peat-forming ecosystems, are also known as mires.

    Fen

  • Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; alkaline mires are called fens.

    Bog

  • String bogs are also known as aapa moors or aapa mires (from Finnish aapasuo) or Strangmoor (from the German).

    String bog

  • A peatland that is actively forming peat is called a mire.

    Peatland

  • All types of mires share the common characteristic of being saturated with water, at least seasonally with actively forming peat, while having their own ecosystem.

    Peatland

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.