miry

American  

[mahyuhr-ee] / ˈmaɪər i /

adjective

mirier, miriest

1. of the nature of mire; swampy.

   miry ground.

2. abounding in mire; muddy.

3. covered or bespattered with mire.

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Other Word Forms

• miriness noun
• unmiry adjective

Etymology

Origin of miry

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at mire, -y ¹

Explanation

Anything soggy, soft, and a little muddy is miry. Your bright white sneakers won't look brand new anymore after you hike along the miry riverbank in them. The adjective miry, which is good for describing places that are boggy or mucky, comes from mire, "a stretch of swampy ground." Mire derives from the Old Norse word myrr, "bog or swamp," and shares a root (meaning "damp") with the word moss. Miry things are damp and squishy, like the ground around a marsh or the muddy surface of a dirt road after heavy rain.

Example Sentences

According to the historian Edward Hasted, writing in the 1770s, Cooling was “an unfrequented place, the roads of which are deep and miry, and it is as unhealthy as it is unpleasant.”

From New York Times • Nov. 6, 2018

Without access to the inter-stage area, which turns the miry walk between the two main stages into a comparatively short hop, the following would not be possible.

From Time • Jul. 7, 2014

Still, they did not touch bottom; miry points round which the tide swirled, rotting logs on mud-banks, and misty trees crept astern, and at last they heard the rumble of the swell on beaten sand.

From The Coast of Adventure by Bindloss, Harold

The road was horribly miry; presently, as I was staggering through a slough, just after I had passed a little cottage, I heard a cracked voice crying, “I suppose you lost your way?”

From Wild Wales The People, Laguage & Scenery by Borrow, George Henry

At times, it was with the greatest difficulty, after doubling the teams, that the artillery and wagons were extricated from those miry depths.

From Four Years A Scout and Spy by Downs, E. C.