▪ I. mire, n.1
(maɪə(r))
Forms: 4–8 myre, 4–6 myr, 4–5 myere, 4 meore, mir, mure, muyre, 5–7 myer, 5–6 moyre, 6 mier, 4– mire.
[ME. mire, a. ON. m{yacu}r-r fem. (mod.Icel. m{yacu}ri, Sw. myr, Da. myre, myr):—OTeut. *miuzjâ:—*meuzjâ f. *meus- (cf. OE. méos moss, OHG. mios, MHG. mies), ablaut-var. of *mus-: see moss.]
1. a. A piece of wet, swampy ground; a boggy place in which one may be engulfed or stick fast. Also in generalized sense, swampy ground, bog.
| 13.. Exec. Simon Fraser in Pol. Songs (Camden) 216 Now Kyng Hobbe in the mures ȝongeth. 13.. Sir Beues (A.) 2023 And in a mure don him cast. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VI. 379 It stondeth in water mareys and meores. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. iv. 384 Bote stande as a stake þat stykeþ in a muyre. 14.. Sir Beues (MS. S.) 638 So he smote on her sweres Þat her hedes fel on þe myres. a 1400–50 Alexander 2986 Sum ware dreuyn doun in dikis sum in depe myrys [MS. Dubl. mires]. c 1440 Sir Gowther 417 (Breul) He toke his speyre..And spard nodur myre ne more; Forthe at þo yatus on hors he went. 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 222 When he had dispeched theim out of the moyre. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 539 Where the ground..yeeldeth forth such a continuall moisture, that the smallest trampling or treading therupon bringeth it to a verie myre. 1789 Blake Songs Innoc., Little Boy Lost 7 The mire was deep. 1887 Rider Haggard She xxviii, For three whole days through stench and mire..did our bearers struggle along. |
| transf. 1819 Shelley Mask of Anarchy x, Over English land he passed, Trampling to a mire of blood The adoring multitude. |
b. fig. esp. in phrases, e.g.: to bring, drag, lay, leave, stick in the mire; to find oneself in the mire.
| c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 286 Synne..bryngiþ his doere into þe same myre þat he eschewiþ. c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 508 He sette nat his benefice to hyre, And leet his sheepe encombred in the Myre. ― Manciple's T. 186 A thousand folk hath rakel Ire ffully fordoon and broght hem in the Mire. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 93 And of his Slouthe he dremeth ofte How that he sticketh in the Myr. c 1440 York Myst. xxxvii. 256, I schall þe prove be right resoune, Þou motes his men in to þe myre. 1535 Coverdale Ps. lxviii. 1 The waters are come in euen vnto my soule. I sticke fast in the depe myre. 1559 Mirr. Mag., Mortimer xv, The subtyll quean [i.e. Fortune] behynde me set a trap, wherby to dashe and laye all in the myre. 1607 Shakes. Timon i. ii. 60 Honest water, which nere left man i' th' mire. 1622 Bacon in Spedding Life (1874) VII. 385 That thrice noble prince..will help to pull me..out of the mire of an abject and sordid condition. 1742 Young Nt. Th. vi. 216 For sordid lucre plunge we in the mire? 1859 Kingsley Misc. (1860) I. 338 Drowning in the horrible mire of doubt. 1884 Pall Mall G. 9 Sept. 1/2 Sir Edmund Hornby..when he leaves the general for the particular finds himself in the mire. |
2. a. Wet or soft mud, slush, dirt. Often in allusions to 2 Pet. ii. 22.
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 70 William was oglyft, his helm was fulle of myre. 1471 Ripley Comp. Alch. iv. v. in Ashm. (1652) 145 Clay and Myer. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 206 Whiche threwe stones and clottes of myre at hym. 1535 Coverdale 2 Pet. ii. 22 The sowe that was waszhed [is turned agayne] vnto hir walowynge in the myre. [So 1611.] 1667 Milton P.L. iv. 1010 What follie then To boast what Arms can doe, since thine no more Then Heav'n permits, nor mine, though doubld now To trample thee as mire. 1755 Young Centaur ii. Wks. 1757 IV. 157 He is an immortal being, that would lose none of its most darling delights, if he were a brute in the mire. 1755 Johnson, Mire, mud; dirt at the bottom of water. 1837 Lytton E. Maltrav. 11 The roads were heavy with mire. 1871 R. Ellis tr. Catullus xvii. 9 Headlong into the mire below topsy-turvy to drown him. |
b. fig. or in figurative context.
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 1113 Þaȝ þou be man fenny, & al tomarred in myre whyl þou on molde lyuyes. 1765–78 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 279 Thus the mire of sordid appetite must be the soil wherein to plant them all. 1882 Mrs. E. Lynn Linton in Life xvii. (1901) 238 Turn where you will you see pain and sacrifice—the root of the lily in the mire. |
c. nonce-uses. A mass of dirt.
| 1871 Browning Pr. Hohenst. 1338 Until a stumble, and the man's one mire! 1877 Tennyson Harold iv. iii, What late guest,..caked and plaster'd with a hundred mires, Hath stumbled on our cups? |
d. Dung. rare.
| 1922 Joyce Ulysses 649 Bloom..with Stephen passed through the gap of the chains..and, stepping over a strand of mire, went across towards Gardiner street lower. |
3. attrib. and Comb., as mire-fir, mire-hole; mire-bestrowed, mire-deep, mire-smirched adjs.
| 1834 H. Miller Scenes & Leg. xii. (1857) 187 Helen hastily lighted a bundle of mire-fir. 1835 Haliburton Clockm. Ser. i. (1837) 73 Over ditches, creeks, mire holes, and flag ponds. 1859 Dickens T. Two Cities iii. i, The mire-deep roads. 1908 Hardy Dynasts III. vi. viii. 281 Cavalry in the cornfields mire-bestrowed. 1960 S. Plath Colossus 12 Common barnyard sows, Mire-smirched, blowzy. |
4. Special comb.: mire-bumper Sc., the bittern (Jamieson 1808–25); mire-crow, the laughing gull, Larus ridibundus; mire-duck Sc., the wild duck, Anas boscas (Swainson Prov. Names Birds 1885); also U.S. the common duck (Cent. Dict.); mire-pipes dial., stockings without feet. Also mire-snipe.
| 1678 Ray Willughby's Ornith. 347 The Pewet or Black⁓cap, called in some places the Sea-Crow and Mire-Crow. 1807 J. Hall Trav. Scotl. II. 608 Mire-pipes or stockings without feet. |
▪ II. † mire, n.2 Obs.
Cf. pismire.
[ME. mire (?:—OE. *m{iacu}re wk. fem., found only in Benson's Anglo-Saxon Dict., but possibly genuine) corresponding to MDu. miere (Du. mier), MLG., mod.LG. mire (whence rare mod.HG. miere).
If the word is the formal equivalent of Sw. myra (OSw. also myr), Da. myre, the OTeut. type may have been either *meuzjôn- (= Welsh mywion, ants) or miurjôn, related by ablaut to ON. maur-r (Norw. maur, OSw. mör) whence the synonymous northern ME. maur. Another hypothesis is that the Eng. and LG. forms represent an OTeut. *mîrôn-, unconnected with the Scandinavian words and not otherwise found exc. perh. in the doubtful Crim-Goth. miera; some scholars would refer this to the root *mîg- (see mig), so that the etymological notion would be the same as that in the synonymous LG. mig-ente (Woeste), mig-æmeken (Schambach); if so the compound pismire expresses the idea twice over. Outside Teut. several langs. have names for the ant of similar sound to the Teut. words here mentioned, though the difficulties in the way of admitting etymological connexion have not yet been removed: cf. Zend maoiri, Gr. µύρµηξ (and L. formīca from *mormīca), OSl. mravija (Russ. muraveĭ), OIrish moirb, Welsh mór.]
An ant. (Cf. maur, pismire.)
| c 1220 Bestiary 234 Ðe mire is maȝti. Ibid. 273 Ðe mire muneð us mete to tilen. |
▪ III. ‖ mire, n.3
(mir)
[F. mire, vbl. n. f. mirer to look at, to sight a gun.]
1. Gunnery. quoin of mire [= F. coin de mire]: see quot.
| 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) VIII. 233/2 The quoin of mire, which are pieces of wood with a notch on the side to put the fingers on, to draw them back or push them forward when the gunner points his piece. |
2. Astr. (See quot.)
| 1885 E. S. Holden in Sidereal Messenger (Minn.) III. 301 A mire or meridian mark, eighty feet distant. |
▪ IV. † mire, a. Obs.
[f. mire n.1]
Miry.
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. i. 791 Yit if thy garth be mire, a diche may stonde. 1441 in Plumpton Corr. (Camden) p. lx, The said misdoers followed, and drove them into a mire more. 1557 Tusser 100 Points Husb. xxxviii, When pasture is gone, and the fildes mier and weate. c 1656 Milton Sonn. to Lawrence, Now that the Fields are dank, and ways are mire. |
▪ V. mire, v.1
(maɪə(r))
Forms: 5–7 myre, 6–7 myer, 6 myar, myir, 4– mire.
[f. mire n.1]
I. trans.
1. a. To plunge or set fast in the mire. (Chiefly in pass.) Also refl.
| 1559 Mirr. Mag., Hen. VI, xxxiv, Who moyled to remove the rocke out of the mud, Shall myer him selfe. 1574 Hellowes Gueuara's Fam. Ep. (1577) 354 There be so many quagmires, wherein to be myred. 1576 Newton Lemnie's Complex. (1633) 179 As among Fishes, Eeles, and other slippery Fishes that lye still myering themselves in mudde. a 1656 Ussher Ann. vi. (1658) 706 The Souldiers of Cæsar and Antonius were mired in the fens of Philippi. 1752 Carte Hist. Eng. III. 207 Some of them were mired in it [sc. a slough]. 1832 Lyell Princ. Geol. II. 276 Where terrestrial quadrupeds were mired. |
b. fig. To involve in difficulties. Formerly often, † to discomfit or confound, esp. in a dispute.
| c 1400 Beryn 3388 And nowe we be I-myryd, he letith vs sit aloon. 1560 Rolland Crt. Venus ii. 936 With the missiue that sa oft did him myir. c 1570 Durham Depos. (Surtees) 264 He..was so myerd and blinded, by reason of the said stroks. 1577–87 Stanyhurst Chron. Irel. 86/1 in Holinshed, This is a doubtie kind of accusation..wherein they are stabled and mired at my first deniall. 1688 Prideaux Valid. Orders Ch. Eng. 74 You having been mir'd amongst abundance of Absurdities..already. 1728 Earbery tr. Burnet's St. Dead I. 39 But further we shall be mired in the Difficulties of their Hypothesis. 1778 Conciliation 7 Mir'd and flound'ring in th' unbottom'd Pit. 1847 Emerson Poems (1857) 185 Or mired by climate's gross extremes. 1852 J. Bruce Biog. Samson iii. (1854) 70 It [marriage] threatened to mire him for ever in domestic wrangling and broils. 1896 F. H. Burnett Lady of Qual. xvi, A devil grins at me and plucks me back, and taunts and mires me. |
c. Of bogs, mud, etc.: To hold fast, entangle.
| 1889 T. N. Page In Ole Virginia (1893) 175 The marsh on either side would have mired a cat. 1892 A. E. Lee Hist. Columbus (Ohio) I. 273 The bog..began to dry up, but not sufficiently to prevent it from hopelessly miring the village cows. |
2. To bespatter or soil with mire or filth; to defile. lit. and fig.
| 1508 Kennedie Flyting w. Dunbar 472 And myrit thaym wyth thy mvk to the myd mast. 1530 Palsgr. 636/1, I myar, I beraye with myar. Je crotte. 1566 Drant Horace, Sat. i. i. A ii b, Janyvere That myrethe all the costs wyth slete. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado iv. i. 135 Smeer'd thus and mir'd with infamie. 1622 Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d' Alf. i. 228 Being myred in the Winter with durt. 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 116 ¶2, I..did not come home..mired and tanned. 1851 Borrow Lavengro lxix, I wonder how my horse's knees are; not much hurt, I think—only mired. 1852 M. Arnold Tristram & Iseult iii. 171 Her palfrey's flanks were mired and bathed in sweat. 1868 Tennyson Lucretius 159 Strangers at my hearth Not welcome, harpies miring every dish. |
II. intr.
3. a. To sink in the mire, be bogged. Also with down.
| 1607 Shakes. Timon iv. iii. 147 Paint till a horse may myre upon your face. 1762 Mills Syst. Pract. Husb. I. 152 It ploughed very tough, and the cattle mired in some places. 1778 W. H. Marshall Minutes Agric. 25 Oct. an. 1775 No horse could have dragged his legs after him—he must have mired-down. 1835 H. Evans Jrnl. in Mississippi Valley Hist. Rev. (1927) XIV. 195 In crossing some of these creeks some of our horses and pack mules mired down. 1840 W. Sewall Diary (1930) 221 The roads being soft..I mired down. 1865 Visct. Milton & Cheadle N. West Passage by Land 283 We had been delayed and harassed every day by the horses miring. 1941 Amer. Speech XVI. 184 Mire down, to stick in mud. |
b. To defecate. rare.
| 1922 Joyce Ulysses 48 An archway where dogs have mired. Ibid. 649 Slowly..he [sc. the horse] mired. |
▪ VI. † mire, v.2 Obs.
Also 7 myre.
[a. F. mirer = It. mirare, Sp., Pg. mirar:—popular L. mīrāre to look at, from class. L. mīrārī (pre-class. mīrāre) to wonder: see miracle n.]
trans. To look at in a mirror.
| c 1430 Pilgr. Lyf Manhode i. cv. (1869) 56 A mirrour..in whiche al the world may mire him wel and considere him. 1640 tr. Verdere's Rom. Rom. iii. 106 She by the light of two Tapers..myred her self in his eyes. |
▪ VII. † mire, v.3 Obs.
[a. L. mīrārī: see miracle.
The dial. mire ‘to wonder’ is perh. aphetic for admire.]
intr. To wonder.
| 1582 Stanyhurst æneis iv. (Arb.) 104 Heere but alas he myred what course may be warelye taken. |
▪ VIII. mire
obs. dat. sing. fem. of mine pron.
▪ IX. mire
obs. form of mar v.; variant of meri.