mire
English · Español · Français · Italiano · Português · Română · Thesaurus
AI In plain words
Writing a short explanation…
Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
mire¹
- /ˈmaɪə/ UK
- /ˈmaɪɚ/ US
- /ˈmaɪɹ/ US
Rhymes with -aɪə(ɹ)
Where it comes from
From Middle English mire, a borrowing from Old Norse mýrr, from Proto-Germanic *miuzijō, whence also Swedish myr, Norwegian myr, Icelandic mýri, Dutch *mier (in placenames, for example Mierlo). Related to Proto-Germanic *meusą, whence Old English mēos, and Proto-Germanic *musą, whence Old English mos (English moss). Doublet of (obsolete) mizzy.
noun mires
- Deep mud; moist, spongy earth. Sow ran and squall'd, While Jack he bawl'd, And Jill join'd in the choir, Dog Ball being near, Bit sow by the ear, And threw Jack into the mire.
- A bog or fen; (in wetland science, specifically) a peatland which is actively forming peat, such as an active bog or fen. Glagolev […] measured CH₄ emission from a mire in West Siberia using a static chamber method. Similar methods had been developed and tested by Nakano et al. (2006), Fig. 1.
- An undesirable situation; a predicament. Swansea seemed to be pulling clear of trouble with five wins in their first eight games following head coach Paul Clement's appointment, but two successive defeats had dragged the Swans back into the mire.
verb mires · miring · mired
- To cause or permit to become stuck in mud; to plunge or fix in mud. to mire a horse or wagon
- To sink into mud.
- To weigh down.
-
To soil with mud or foul matter.
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’?
Similar: bemire
mire²
- /ˈmaɪə/ UK
- /ˈmaɪɚ/ US
- /ˈmaɪɹ/ US
Rhymes with -aɪə(ɹ)
Where it comes from
From Middle English mire, myre, from Old English *mīere, from Proto-West Germanic *miurijā, from Proto-Germanic *miurijǭ (“ant”), from Proto-Indo-European *morwís (“ant”).
Cognates
Cognate with North Frisian miir (“ant”), Dutch mier (“ant”), Low German Miere (“ant”), Danish myre (“ant”), Faroese meyra (“ant”), Icelandic and Norwegian Bokmål maur (“ant”), Norwegian Nynorsk maur, møvver (“ant”), Swedish myra (“ant”), Crimean Gothic miera (“ant”), Finnish muurahainen (“ant”), Ingrian muurahain (“ant”); also Breton merien (“ants”), Cornish moryon (“ants”), Old Irish moirb (“ant”), Welsh mŷr (“ant”), Latin formīca, furmīca (“ant”), Greek μερμήγκι (mermígki), μυρμήγκι (myrmígki, “ant”), Albanian morr (“louse; aphid”), Belarusian мура́шка (muráška, “ant”), Bulgarian мрав (mrav), мра́вка (mrávka, “ant”), Czech brabenec, mravenec (“ant”), Kashubian marwa, mrówka (“ant”), Lower Sorbian mroja (“ant”), Macedonian мра́ва (mráva), мра́вка (mrávka, “ant”), Pannonian Rusyn брамушка (bramuška), ґрамушка (gramuška, “ant”), Polish mrówka (“ant”), Russian мураве́й (muravéj, “ant”), Serbo-Croatian мрав, mrav (“ant”), Slovak mravec (“ant”), Slovene mravlja (“ant”), Ukrainian мура́ха (muráxa, “ant”), Upper Sorbian mrowja (“ant”), Armenian մրջյուն (mrǰyun, “ant”), Baluchi مور (mor, “ant”), Central Kurdish مێروو (mêrû), مێروولە (mêrûle, “ant”), Northern Kurdish mûrî (“ant”), Ossetian мӕлдзыг (mælʒyg, “ant”), Persian مور (mōr / mur, “ant”), مورچه (mōrča / murče, “ant; hole; trench”), Sanskrit वम्र (vamra, “ant”).
noun mires
- An ant. "Having been seriously interrupted by small brown ants or mires working in my cutting bench, digging holes down the side of my cuttings, thereby arresting the process of rooting. […]"
Mire³
Rhymes with -aɪə(ɹ)
proper noun Mires
- A surname.
Translations
Every language
noun deep mud
| Español | barrizal, lodazal, lamedal, fangal, fanguero |
|---|---|
| 中文 | 污泥 wūní |
| हिन्दी | कीचड़ kīcaṛ |
| Português | lama, lodo, barro |
| Français | fange, bourbier |
| Deutsch | Morast, Schlamm, Matsch |
| Italiano | fango, mota, limo |
| Ελληνικά | βούρκος voúrkos |
| Русский | топь topʹ, тряси́на trjasína |
verb figurative
| Español | envolver, empantanar, atollar |
|---|
verb to plunge or fix in mud
| Español | empantanar |
|---|---|
| Deutsch | feststecken |
verb to sink into mud
| Español | empantanarse |
|---|---|
| Français | embourber, enliser |
| Deutsch | einsinken |
| Русский | погрязнуть pogrjaznutʹ |
Talk about this word "mire." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/mire. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. mire. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/mire "mire." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/mire.Cite this
@misc{mire_2026,
title = {mire},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/mire},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
