mire

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see also: Mire

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Pronunciation

• (British) IPA: /ˈmaɪə/
• (America) IPA: /ˈmaɪɚ/, /ˈmaɪɹ/

Noun

mire

1. Deep mud; moist, spongy earth.
   • When Caliban was lazy and neglected his work, Ariel (who was invisible to all eyes but Prospero’s) would come slyly and pinch him, and sometimes tumble him down in the mire. (Charles Lamb, Tales from Shakespeare, Hatier, coll. « Les Classiques pour tous » n° 223, p. 51)

   Synonyms: peatland, quag

   Hypernyms: wetland

   hypo en

2. An undesirable situation, a predicament.

Translations

• French: fange, bourbier
• German: Morast, Schlamm, Matsch
• Italian: fango, mota, limo
• Portuguese: lama, lodo, barro
• Russian: топь
• Spanish: barrizal, lodazal, fangal, barro, fango, cieno

Verb

mire (mires, present participle miring; past and past participle mired)

1. (transitive) To cause or permit to become stuck in mud; to plunge or fix in mud.

   to mire a horse or wagon

   Synonyms: bemire, enmire

2. (intransitive) To sink into mud.
3. (transitive, figurative) To weigh down.
4. (intransitive) To soil with mud or foul matter.
   • circa 1598 William Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing, Act IV, Scene 1,

     Why had I not with charitable hand

     Took up a beggar’s issue at my gates,

     Who smirch’d thus and mired with infamy,

     I might have said ‘No part of it is mine;

     This shame derives itself from unknown loins’?

   Synonyms: bemire

Translations

• French: s'embourber, s'enliser
• Russian: погрязнуть
• Spanish: empantanar

Noun

mire (plural mires)

1. (obsolete) An ant.

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Mire

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Proper noun

1. Surname

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