mire

American  

[mahy^uhr] / maɪər /

noun

1. a tract or area of wet, swampy ground; bog; marsh.

2. ground of this kind, as wet, slimy soil of some depth or deep mud.

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verb (used with object)

mired, miring

1. to plunge and fix in mire; cause to stick fast in mire.

2. to involve; entangle.

3. to soil with mire; bespatter with mire.

verb (used without object)

mired, miring

1. to sink and stick in mire or mud.

mire British  

/ maɪə /

noun

1. a boggy or marshy area

2. mud, muck, or dirt

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verb

1. to sink or cause to sink in a mire

2. (tr) to make dirty or muddy

3. (tr) to involve, esp in difficulties

Other Word Forms

• mired adjective
• miriness noun
• miry adjective

Etymology

Origin of mire

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, from Old Norse mȳrr “bog”; cognate with Old English mēos moss

Explanation

A mire is mushy ground like quicksand, so if you feel yourself trapped in a sticky situation, consider yourself mired. One gets mired IN something — like in a dispute or in a love triangle. Mire still has its original, though less-used, sense of a slushy, muddy bit of land that gives way underfoot, also known as a quagmire. One of the most famous mires in literary history was the one haunted by the Hound of the Baskervilles in Conan Doyle's classic. Have the fibs you told your beloved come back to haunt you? You're stuck in a mire then, a treacherous situation it's going to be pretty hard to squirm out of.

Example Sentences

Here are three tips to help you navigate the undead monetary mire.

From Salon • Mar. 24, 2026

After routing their bitter rivals 4-1 in November, they made the short trip up the Seven Sisters Road to inflict another humiliating defeat that pushed Tottenham deeper into the relegation mire.

From Barron's • Feb. 22, 2026

But after reading “The Dream Factory,” you might like him better when he still had his feet in the Shoreditch mire.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 7, 2025

Lesser biographies pick sides; Mangold trusts us to find our own path through the mire, while noting the particular risk of being a wunderkind hoisted up into a deity.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 24, 2025

Near the center of the fields there were thin lakes of muddy water which I had to make my way around, my unrecognizable shoes making obscene noises as I lifted them out of the mire.

From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles

Related Words

• bog down
• embroil
• enmesh
• ensnare
• entangle
• flounder
• implicate
• involve
• stick
• tangle
• trap