1. A stretch of wet, spongy, swampy ground. An area deep in mud.

2. A troublesome situation a person finds difficult to escape.

3. To get stuck fast in mud.

4. To get muddy.

Etymology

The ancient word “Mire” dates back thousands of years to the Proto-Indo-European, “meus,” meaning damp. Today’s English word, “moss,” is also derived from that word.

Later, in Proto-German, the word became “miuzja,” a bog or marsh. Old Norse transformed the word into “myrr, a bog or swamp. With a slight change in pronunciation, it entered Old English as the noun, “myre.” By the time of Middle English, it had achieved the modern form, “mire.”

Mire was turned into a verb in the 15th and 16th centuries in England. These meanings included getting messy and getting stuck in a difficult situation.

In a Sentence

The little girl got her galoshes mired by playing in the garden during a rainstorm.

We can’t build the garage until we deal with all this muck and mire in the area.

The attractive young woman found herself in a mire of unwanted relationships.