Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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.
Vocabulary lists containing miry
Listening for Lions
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Titus Andronicus
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Selection Vocabulary 4, Unit 5
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Miry Whitehill of Eagle Rock runs Miry’s List, a nonprofit that uses crowdsourcing and social media to connect people who want to help refugee families.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 27, 2022
Proceeds from the dinners go to the family as well as to Miry’s List, which was founded in 2016 by community activist Miry Whitehill.
From Los Angeles Times • May 31, 2019
“Here is my cousin, Miry, with the skulls and fruit for the Day of the Dead,” Juan Jesús Murillo, Mexico, 1991.
From The New Yorker • May 31, 2018
Ye see, Miry she was old Black Hoss John Brown's da'ter, and lived up there in that 'are big brown house by the meetin'-house, that hes the red hollyhock in the front yard.
From Oldtown Fireside Stories by Stowe, Harriet Beecher
The fun of it was, that Tom Beacon himself was more crazy after her than he was afore; and they say he made Miry a right up-and-down offer, and Miry she jest wouldn't have him.
From Oldtown Fireside Stories by Stowe, Harriet Beecher
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
