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mire

   Also found in: Medical, Legal, Acronyms, Idioms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.01 sec.
mire  (mr)
n.
1. An area of wet, soggy, muddy ground; a bog.
2. Deep slimy soil or mud.
3. A disadvantageous or difficult condition or situation: the mire of poverty.
v. mired, mir·ing, mires
v.tr.
1.
a. To cause to sink or become stuck in or as if in mire.
b. To hinder, entrap, or entangle as if in mire.
2. To soil with mud or mire.
v.intr.
To sink or become stuck in mire.

[Middle English, from Old Norse mrr, bog.]

mire [maɪə]
n
1. (Earth Sciences / Physical Geography) a boggy or marshy area
2. mud, muck, or dirt
vb
1. to sink or cause to sink in a mire
2. (tr) to make dirty or muddy
3. (tr) to involve, esp in difficulties
[from Old Norse mȳrr; related to moss]
miriness  n
miry  adj
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Noun1.miremire - a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot
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
2.mire - deep soft mud in water or slush; "they waded through the slop"
mud, clay - water soaked soil; soft wet earth
3.mire - a difficulty or embarrassment that is hard to extricate yourself from; "the country is still trying to climb out of the mire left by its previous president"; "caught in the mire of poverty"
difficulty - a condition or state of affairs almost beyond one's ability to deal with and requiring great effort to bear or overcome; "grappling with financial difficulties"
Verb1.mire - entrap; "Our people should not be mired in the past"
involve - engage as a participant; "Don't involve me in your family affairs!"
2.mire - cause to get stuck as if in a mire; "The mud mired our cart"
get stuck, grind to a halt, mire, bog down - be unable to move further; "The car bogged down in the sand"
3.mire - be unable to move further; "The car bogged down in the sand"
stand still - remain in place; hold still; remain fixed or immobile; "Traffic stood still when the funeral procession passed by"
bog down, mire - cause to get stuck as if in a mire; "The mud mired our cart"
4.mire - soil with mud, muck, or mire; "The child mucked up his shirt while playing ball in the garden"
begrime, bemire, colly, dirty, grime, soil - make soiled, filthy, or dirty; "don't soil your clothes when you play outside!"

mire
noun
1. mess, trouble, difficulty, emergency, jam (informal), plight, straits, hot water (informal), predicament, tight spot or corner The economy is not out of the mire yet.
2. mud, dirt, muck, ooze, sludge, slime, slob (Irish), gloop (informal), grot (slang) the muck and mire of farmyards
3. swamp, marsh, bog, fen, quagmire, morass, wetland Many of those killed were buried in the mire.
verb
1. soil, dirty, muddy, besmirch, begrime, bespatter The party has been mired by allegations of sleaze.
2. entangle, involve, mix up, catch up, bog down, tangle up, enmesh The minister still remains mired in the controversy of the affair.
in the mire in trouble, entangled, in difficulties, encumbered We're still in the mire, but I think we're good enough to escape.
Translations
mire [maɪəʳ]
A. Nfango m, lodo m
B. VT (US) to get mired inquedar atascado or preso en
mire [ˈmaɪər] nbourbier m
the mire (= serious difficulties) → le bourbier
They have struggled out of the mire → Ils se sont sortis du bourbier.
to be in the mire → être dans le bourbier
to sink into the mire (= get into difficulties) → s'embourber
to be deep in the mire → être embourbé dans la crise
a company deep in the mire → une compagnie profondément embourbée dans la crise
mire
nMorast m (also fig), → Schlamm m; the football pitch was an absolute mireder Fußballplatz war ein einziges Schlammfeld; to drag somebody/something through the mire (fig)jdn/etw in den Schmutz ziehen
mire [maɪə] npantano, melma
mire [maɪə] npantano, melma


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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
AN Ox, unable to extricate himself from the mire into which he sank, was advised to make use of a Political Pull.
At last he came to a part of the road where the wheels sank half-way into the mire, and the more the horses pulled, the deeper sank the wheels.
She told him of the penalty of breaking the taboo of the Red One--a week of torture, living, the details of which she yammered out from her face in the mire until he realized that he was yet a tyro in knowledge of the frightfulness the human was capable of wreaking on the human.
 
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