mire

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmaɪə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmaɪɚ/, /ˈmaɪɹ/
• Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)

From Middle English mire, a borrowing from Old Norse mýrr, from Proto-Germanic *miuzijō, whence also Swedish myr, Norwegian myr, Icelandic mýri, Dutch *mier (in placenames, for example Mierlo). Related to Proto-Germanic *meusą, whence Old English mēos, and Proto-Germanic *musą, whence Old English mos (English moss).

mire (countable and uncountable, plural mires)

1. Deep mud; moist, spongy earth.
   • (Can we date this quote?), (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     When Caliban was lazy and neglected his work, Ariel (who was invisible to all eyes but Prospero’s) would come slyly and pinch him, and sometimes tumble him down in the mire. (Charles Lamb, Tales from Shakespeare, Hatier, coll. « Les Classiques pour tous » n° 223, p. 51)

   1. (wetland science, strictly) A peatland which is actively forming peat, such as an active bog or fen.

      Synonyms: peatland, quag

      Hypernym: wetland

      Hyponyms: bog, fen

2. An undesirable situation; a predicament.
   • 2017 April 2, Dafydd Pritchard, “Swansea City 0-0 Middlesbrough”, in BBC Sport‎^[2], London:

     Swansea seemed to be pulling clear of trouble with five wins in their first eight games following head coach Paul Clement's appointment, but two successive defeats had dragged the Swans back into the mire.

mire (third-person singular simple present mires, present participle miring, simple past and past participle mired)

1. (transitive) To cause or permit to become stuck in mud; to plunge or fix in mud.

   Synonyms: bemire, enmire

   to mire a horse or wagon

2. (intransitive) To sink into mud.
3. (transitive, figurative) To weigh down.
4. (intransitive) To soil with mud or foul matter.

   Synonym: bemire

   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     Why had I not with charitable hand
     Took up a beggar’s issue at my gates,
     Who smirch’d thus and mired with infamy,
     I might have said ‘No part of it is mine;
     This shame derives itself from unknown loins’?

• unmired

From Middle English mire, from Old English *mȳre, *mīere, from Proto-West Germanic *miurijā, from Proto-Germanic *miurijǭ (“ant”). Cognate to Old Norse maurr, Danish myre, Middle Dutch miere (“ant”) (Dutch mier). All probably from Proto-Indo-European *morwi- (“ant”), whence also cognate to Latin formīca.

mire (plural mires)

1. (rare or obsolete) An ant.
   • 1866, The Gardener's Monthly and Horticultural Advertiser Devoted, page 149:

     "Having been seriously interrupted by small brown ants or mires working in my cutting bench, digging holes down the side of my cuttings, thereby arresting the process of rooting. […] "

   • 1915, Daniel T. Trombley, Batiste of Isle La Motte, page 24:

     Wen I lay down behine dat log I plunk masef right een one dem aunty mire nest an bout 10 million of dem leetle devil begin to heat me.

   • 1939, original c. 1300, Publications - Volume 103; Volume 105, page 267:

     The ant figures in the Bestiary, which tells us that the 'mire' is mighty; toils much in summer and in soft weather; stores wood and seed, corn and grass; in winter she is not harmed: she likes wheat, but shuns barley […]

• IMer, Meir, Meri, Remi, emir, meri, reim, riem, rime

mire

1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive of mirar

From miri +‎ -e.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmire/
• Rhymes: -ire
• Hyphenation: mi‧re

mire

1. in surprise, in awe, in an amazed way

• IPA^(key): /miʁ/

• Audio:

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• Homophones: mir, myrrhe, mirent

Borrowed from Italian mira, from Latin mīrō (“to wonder at”).

mire f (plural mires)

1. (weaponry) aim (action of aiming) [from 1562]

   Synonym: visée

2. foresight (of rifle) [from 1611]

   Synonym: guidon

3. (literal, figurative) target [from early 1600s]

   Synonyms: but, cible

4. (television) test pattern
5. (surveying) rod (measuring tool)

Inherited from Old French mire, mirie, a semi-learned borrowing from Latin medicus.

mire m (plural mires, feminine miresse)

2. (historical) medieval physician

   Hypernym: (more generally) médecin (“doctor”)

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

mire

1. inflection of mirer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “mire”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• émir, Remi, Rémi, rime, rimé

mire

1. inflection of mirar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

mi (“what”) +‎ -re (sublative case suffix)

• IPA^(key): [ˈmirɛ]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mi‧re
• Rhymes: -rɛ

mire

1. sublative singular of mi

   Mire gondolsz? ― What are you thinking about?

mire

1. for what (purpose)?

   Mire jó ez? ― What is it for?

mire (not comparable)

1. whereupon (after which, in consequence)

   Megszidtam, mire sírva fakadt. ― I scolded her, whereupon she started to cry.

2. by the time, when

   Mire hazaértem, a vendégek már elmentek. ― By the time I got home, the guests had left.

• mire in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmʲɪɾʲə/

From Old Irish mire (“madness, frenzy, infatuation”).

mire f (genitive singular mire)

1. quickness, rapidity
2. spiritedness, ardor
3. madness, frenzy, mania

   Synonym: buile

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

mire

1. inflection of mear:
   1. genitive feminine singular
   2. comparative degree

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “mire”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “mire”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959) “mire”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
• “mire”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2025

mire f

1. plural of mira

• ermi, meri, remi, rime

mire

1. inflection of mirer:
   1. first-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. third-person singular/plural present subjunctive

From mīrus +‎ -ē.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈmiː.reː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈmiː.re]

mīrē (not comparable)

1. wondrously, marvelously, amazingly
2. strangely, peculiarly, uncommonly, exceedingly
   • 68 BCE – 44 BCE, Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum 8.1.2:

     mire quam illius loci non modo usus sed etiam cogitatio delectat.

     It is a wonder how, not only the use of that place, but also the very thought of it delights me.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈmiː.rɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈmiː.re]

mīre

1. vocative masculine singular of mīrus

• “mire”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “mire”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

Borrowed from Old Norse mýrr, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *miuzijō.

• myer, myre, myrre
• muire, muyre (Southwest Midland)

• IPA^(key): /ˈmiːr(ə)/
• (Southwest Midland) IPA^(key): /ˈmyːr(ə)/

mire (plural mires)

2. Marshy or swampy land; a mire or peat.
3. A region of marshy or swampy land.
4. A muddy or dirt-covered region.
5. (figuratively) Iniquity, sinfulness; immoral behaviour.
6. (rare) A quagmire or conundrum.
7. (rare) A puddle or pond; a watery hollow.

• myren

• English: mire (“swamp”)
• Scots: mire

• “mīre, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 20 August 2018.

Inherited from Old English *mȳre, *mīere, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *miurijǭ.

• myre

• IPA^(key): /ˈmiːr(ə)/

mire

2. ant

• pissemyre

• English: mire (“ant”) (obsolete)

• “mīre, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 20 July 2018.

mire

1. inflection of mirar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

From Proto-Nuristani *mr̥dika, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *mŕ̥ts (“clay, earth”), from Proto-Indo-European *meld-.

• IPA^(key): /miɾe/ (tone class A)

mire (Pronz)^[1]

1. clay

Inherited from Latin mīles (“soldier”). The original sense of soldier is still attested in some Christmas carols.^[1] The semantic evolution originates in Roman law, which granted soldiers the right to marry only upon their release from service as veterans (see also: bătrân). Consequently, once married, a man was no longer a miles.

Less likely, the sense of bridegroom arose as a semantic calque of the rare voină (“husband”), from Slavic воинъ (voinŭ, “warrior”).

Other improbable etymologies proposed include Turkish amir (“chief”), Cuman mir ("prince"), a Vulgar Latin *mīrex, from Ancient Greek μεῖραξ (meîrax, “adolescent; boy”), or an old Indo-European term.^[2]

Replaced mărit, which only survived in some regional dialects.

• Audio:

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mire m (plural miri, feminine equivalent mireasă)

1. bridegroom
2. (obsolete) soldier

   Synonym: soldat

• mireasă

• mir
• soț

From Old Irish mire (“madness, frenzy, infatuation”).

• IPA^(key): /mʲiɾʲə/

mire f (genitive singular mire, plural mirean)

1. merriment, mirth, frolic

• gille-mirein

• Edward Dwelly (1911) “mire”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary]‎^[3], 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “mire”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

mire (Cyrillic spelling мире)

1. third-person plural present of miriti

• IPA^(key): /ˈmiɾe/ [ˈmi.ɾe]
• Rhymes: -iɾe
• Syllabification: mi‧re

mire

1. inflection of mirar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative