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

Derived Forms

• unmiry
  adjective
• miriness
  noun

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

Hooray!' yelled Bobby, striking such a whack on Brindle's heaving side that she settled the matter by suddenly lying down to roll, and depositing her encumbrances in the miry ditch.

From A Terrible Tomboy by Brazil, Angela

He pluck my feet out’n de miry clay.

From Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negroes by Odum, Howard W.

It took two hours to cross the miry plain, though it was but a mile and a half wide.

From Stanley's Adventures in the Wilds of Africa A Graphic Account of the Several Expeditions of Henry M. Stanley into the Heart of the Dark Continent by Headley, Joel Tyler