Definition

1. Noun:

   • A difficult or embarrassing situation that is hard to escape from: "Mire" can refer to a complex, troublesome, or degrading predicament.
   • Deep, soft, wet mud or slush: "Mire" also refers to a stretch of swampy, waterlogged ground or thick, deep mud.

2. Verb:

   • To soil or dirty with mud or muck: The basic meaning, to cover or stain with wet dirt.
   • To cause to get stuck, as if in mud; to hamper or entangle: To involve someone or something in difficulties or complications that impede progress.
   • To become stuck or bogged down: To be unable to move forward, either physically or figuratively.

Usage Examples

• Noun:

  • The country is trying to climb out of the economic mire. (The country is trying to escape the difficult economic situation.)
  • The tractor was stuck in the deep mire. (The tractor was stuck in the deep mud.)

• Verb:

  • His boots were mired with mud after the hike. (His boots were dirtied with mud after the hike.)
  • The company became mired in legal disputes. (The company became entangled in legal disputes.)
  • The negotiations have mired in endless debates. (The negotiations have become stuck in endless debates.)

Advanced Usage

• "to be mired in": to be deeply involved in a difficult or unpleasant situation.
  • The administration is mired in scandal. (The administration is deeply involved in scandal.)
• "to drag someone/something through the mire": to publicly criticize or disgrace someone/something.
  • The scandal dragged the politician's name through the mire. (The scandal publicly disgraced the politician's name.)

Variants and Related Words

• Miry (adj): Full of or resembling mire; muddy.
  • The path was miry after the rain. (The path was muddy after the rain.)
• Quagmire (n): A soft boggy area of land; a complex or difficult situation.
  • The war turned into a political quagmire. (The war turned into a difficult political situation.)

Synonyms

• Noun (situation): Quagmire, morass, predicament, difficulty.
• Noun (mud): Mud, sludge, slush, bog, marsh.
• Verb (to dirty): Soil, muddy, begrime.
• Verb (to entangle): Entangle, ensnare, bog down, embroil.

Related Phrasal Verbs/Constructions

• Mire down: (Often used in passive voice as "get/become mired down") to become so involved in details or difficulties that progress stops.
  • Don't get mired down in bureaucracy. (Don't become so entangled in bureaucracy that you can't proceed.)

Related Idioms

• "Stuck in the mire": Trapped in a difficult situation with no easy way out.
  • Without new investment, the project is stuck in the mire. (Without new investment, the project is trapped in a difficult situation.)

Noun

1. a difficulty or embarrassment that is hard to extricate yourself from
   • the country is still trying to climb out of the mire left by its previous president
   • caught in the mire of poverty
2. deep soft mud in water or slush
   • they waded through the slop
3. a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot

Verb

1. soil with mud, muck, or mire
   • The child mucked up his shirt while playing ball in the garden
2. be unable to move further
   • The car bogged down in the sand
3. cause to get stuck as if in a mire
   • The mud mired our cart
4. entrap
   • Our people should not be mired in the past