Mire

mire
    n 1: a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot
         [syn: {mire}, {quagmire}, {quag}, {morass}, {slack}]
    2: deep soft mud in water or slush; "they waded through the
       slop" [syn: {slop}, {mire}]
    3: 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"
    v 1: entrap; "Our people should not be mired in the past" [syn:
         {entangle}, {mire}]
    2: cause to get stuck as if in a mire; "The mud mired our cart"
       [syn: {mire}, {bog down}]
    3: be unable to move further; "The car bogged down in the sand"
       [syn: {grind to a halt}, {get stuck}, {bog down}, {mire}]
    4: soil with mud, muck, or mire; "The child mucked up his shirt
       while playing ball in the garden" [syn: {mire}, {muck},
       {mud}, {muck up}]
    

Mire \Mire\ (m[imac]r), n. [AS. m[imac]re, m[=y]re; akin to D.
   mier, Icel. maurr, Dan. myre, Sw. myra; cf. also Ir. moirbh,
   Gr. my`rmhx.]
   An ant. [Obs.] See {Pismire}.
   [1913 Webster]
    

Mire \Mire\, n. [OE. mire, myre; akin to Icel. m?rr swamp, Sw.
   myra marshy ground, and perh. to E. moss.]
   Deep mud; wet, spongy earth. --Chaucer.
   [1913 Webster]

         He his rider from the lofty steed
         Would have cast down and trod in dirty mire. --Spenser.
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   {Mire crow} (Zool.), the pewit, or laughing gull. [Prov.
      Eng.]

   {Mire drum}, the European bittern. [Prov. Eng.]
      [1913 Webster]
    

Mire \Mire\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Mired} (m[imac]rd); p. pr. &
   vb. n. {Miring}.]
   [1913 Webster]
   1. To cause or permit to stick fast in mire; to plunge or fix
      in mud; as, to mire a horse or wagon.
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   2. Hence: To stick or entangle; to involve in difficulties;
      -- often used in the passive or predicate form; as, we got
      mired in bureaucratic red tape and it took years longer
      than planned.
      [PJC]

   3. To soil with mud or foul matter.
      [1913 Webster]

            Smirched thus and mired with infamy.  --Shak.
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Mire \Mire\, v. i.
   To stick in mire. --Shak.
   [1913 Webster] Mirific
    

112 Moby Thesaurus words for "mire":
      adhere, baygall, befoul, begrime, bemire, bemud, besmirch, besmoke,
      blacken, bog, bog down, bottom, bottomland, bottoms,
      buffalo wallow, cesspool, clay, cleave, cling, cloaca,
      cloaca maxima, cohere, decelerate, defile, detain, dirt, dirty,
      dirty up, drain, dump, dust, embroil, enmesh, ensnare, entangle,
      entrap, everglade, fen, fenland, garbage dump, glade, glop, grime,
      gumbo, gunk, hog wallow, holm, implicate, involve, marais, marish,
      marsh, marshland, meadow, mere, moor, moorland, morass, moss, muck,
      muck up, mud, mud flat, muddy, ooze, peat bog, quag, quagmire,
      quicksand, retard, salt marsh, scum, septic tank, set back, sewer,
      sink, sink in, slab, slacken, slime, slip, slob, slob land, slop,
      slosh, slough, slow down, sludge, slush, smear, smoke, smudge,
      snare, soil, soot, sough, splosh, squash, stick, stodge, sully,
      sump, swale, swamp, swampland, swill, taiga, tangle, tarnish, trap,
      wallow, wash