mire

/ˈmaɪər/

/maɪə/

Other forms: mired; mires; miring

A mire is mushy ground like quicksand, so if you feel yourself trapped in a sticky situation, consider yourself mired. One gets mired IN something — like in a dispute or in a love triangle.

Mire still has its original, though less-used, sense of a slushy, muddy bit of land that gives way underfoot, also known as a quagmire. One of the most famous mires in literary history was the one haunted by the Hound of the Baskervilles in Conan Doyle's classic. Have the fibs you told your beloved come back to haunt you? You're stuck in a mire then, a treacherous situation it's going to be pretty hard to squirm out of.

Definitions of mire

1. noun

   a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot
   synonyms: morass, quag, quagmire, slack

   type of:

   bog, peat bog

   wet spongy ground of decomposing vegetation; has poorer drainage than a swamp; soil is unfit for cultivation but can be cut and dried and used for fuel
2. noun

   deep soft mud in water or slush
   synonyms: slop

   type of:

   clay, mud

   water-soaked soil; soft, wet earth
3. noun

   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”

   type of:

   difficulty

   a condition or state of affairs almost beyond one's ability to deal with and requiring great effort to bear or overcome
4. verb

   cause to get stuck as if in a mire
   “The mud mired our cart”

   synonyms: bog down

   bog down, get stuck, grind to a halt

   be unable to move further
5. verb

   soil with mud, muck, or mire
   synonyms: muck, muck up, mud

   type of:

   begrime, bemire, colly, dirty, grime, soil

   make soiled, filthy, or dirty
6. verb

   be unable to move further
   synonyms: bog down, get stuck, grind to a halt

   bog down

   cause to get stuck as if in a mire

   type of:

   stand still

   remain in place; hold still; remain fixed or immobile
7. verb

   entrap
   “Our people should not be mired in the past”

   synonyms: entangle

   type of:

   involve

   engage as a participant