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mire

[mahyuh r]
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, mir·ing.
  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.
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verb (used without object), mired, mir·ing.
  1. to sink in mire or mud; stick.
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Origin of mire

1300–50; Middle English < Old Norse mȳrr bog; cognate with Old English mēos moss
Related formsun·mired, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

quagmire, entangle, implicate, embroil, ensnare, involve, flounder, enmesh, stick, tangle, trap, goo, swamp, fen, dirt, slime, mud, marsh, ooze, moss

Examples from the Web for miring

Historical Examples

  • We found many wet places but no signs of swamps, nor danger of miring.

    William Clayton's Journal

    William Clayton

  • It didn't seem at all necessary to harrow her with the story of Ingerson's miring in the drink demoniac's morass.

    Pirates' Hope

    Francis Lynde

  • For, beyond watching the river to keep the cattle from miring in the mud lately released from frost grip, there was nothing to do.

    Rowdy of the Cross L

    B.M. Sinclair, AKA B.M. Bower

  • Canello was so afraid of miring in the soft ground that it was hard to get him across some places that seemed quite innocent.

    A-Birding on a Bronco

    Florence A. Merriam

British Dictionary definitions for miring

mire

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
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Derived Formsmiriness, nounmiry, adjective

Word Origin

C14: from Old Norse mӯrr; related to moss
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for miring

mire

n.

c.1300, from a Scandinavian source (cf. Old Norse myrr "bog, swamp"), from Proto-Germanic *miuzja- (cf. Old English mos "bog, marsh"), from PIE *meus- "damp" (see moss).

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mire

v.

c.1400, in figurative sense of "to involve in difficulties," from mire (n.). Literal sense is from 1550s. Related: Mired; miring.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
miring in Medicine

mire

(mîr)
n.
  1. Any of the test objects on the arm of a keratometer whose image, as reflected on the curved surface of the cornea, is used in calculating the amount of astigmatism.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.