MIRE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does mire mean? 

• MIRE (noun)
  The noun MIRE has 3 senses:

1. a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot

2. deep soft mud in water or slush

3. a difficulty or embarrassment that is hard to extricate yourself from

  Familiarity information: MIRE used as a noun is uncommon.

• MIRE (verb)
  The verb MIRE has 4 senses:

1. entrap

2. cause to get stuck as if in a mire

3. be unable to move further

4. soil with mud, muck, or mire

  Familiarity information: MIRE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MIRE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

mire; morass; quag; quagmire; slack

Hypernyms ("mire" is a kind of...):

bog; peat bog (wet spongy ground of decomposing vegetation; has poorer drainage than a swamp; soil is unfit for cultivation but can be cut and dried and used for fuel)

Derivation:

mire (soil with mud, muck, or mire)

mire (be unable to move further)

mire (cause to get stuck as if in a mire)

miry ((of soil) soft and watery)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Deep soft mud in water or slush

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

mire; slop

Context example:

they waded through the slop

Hypernyms ("mire" is a kind of...):

clay; mud (water soaked soil; soft wet earth)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A difficulty or embarrassment that is hard to extricate yourself from

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

caught in the mire of poverty

Hypernyms ("mire" is a kind of...):

difficulty (a condition or state of affairs almost beyond one's ability to deal with and requiring great effort to bear or overcome)

• MIRE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they mire    ... he / she / it mires   
Past simple: mired   
Past participle: mired   
-ing form: miring   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Entrap

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

entangle; mire

Context example:

Our people should not be mired in the past

Hypernyms (to "mire" is one way to...):

involve (engage as a participant)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cause to get stuck as if in a mire

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

bog down; mire

Context example:

The mud mired our cart

Cause:

bog down; get stuck; grind to a halt; mire (be unable to move further)

Verb group:

bog down; get stuck; grind to a halt; mire (be unable to move further)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Derivation:

mire (a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Be unable to move further

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

bog down; get stuck; grind to a halt; mire

Context example:

The car bogged down in the sand

Hypernyms (to "mire" is one way to...):

stand still (remain in place; hold still; remain fixed or immobile)

Verb group:

bog down; mire (cause to get stuck as if in a mire)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Derivation:

mire (a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Soil with mud, muck, or mire

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

mire; muck; muck up; mud

Context example:

The child mucked up his shirt while playing ball in the garden

Hypernyms (to "mire" is one way to...):

begrime; bemire; colly; dirty; grime; soil (make soiled, filthy, or dirty)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Derivation:

mire (a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot)

 Context examples 

Then the tribute the mob paid him was a sorry tribute indeed, for that same mob had wallowed "Ephemera" into the mire.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

That bitter hour cannot be described: in truth, "the waters came into my soul; I sank in deep mire: I felt no standing; I came into deep waters; the floods overflowed me."

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

No, it was all trodden into mire.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Nay, nay, Sir Nigel, cried the prince, fasten not the offence upon Sir Robert Briquet, for we are one and all bogged in the same mire.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was only several years before that he had looked up from the mire at such glorious entities and deemed them gods.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

At the best you are a trifle puzzled and amused that this raw boy, crawling up out of the mire of the abyss, should pass judgment upon your class and call it vulgar.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He was impelled to suggest Locksley Hall, and would have done so, had not his vision gripped him again and left him staring at her, the female of his kind, who, out of the primordial ferment, creeping and crawling up the vast ladder of life for a thousand thousand centuries, had emerged on the topmost rung, having become one Ruth, pure, and fair, and divine, and with power to make him know love, and to aspire toward purity, and to desire to taste divinity—him, Martin Eden, who, too, had come up in some amazing fashion from out of the ruck and the mire and the countless mistakes and abortions of unending creation.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)