Mire vs Dire - What's the difference?
mire | dire |
Deep mud; moist, spongy earth.
* 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 .'' (, ''Tales from Shakespeare , Hatier, coll. « Les Classiques pour tous » n° 223, p. 51)
An undesirable situation, a predicament.
To weigh down.
To cause or permit to become stuck in mud; to plunge or fix in mud.
To soil with mud or foul matter.
* Shakespeare
Warning of bad consequences: ill-boding; portentous.
Requiring action to prevent bad consequences: urgent, pressing.
*{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-14, volume=411, issue=8891, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= Expressing bad consequences: dreadful; dismal; horrible; terrible; lamentable.
(label) Bad in quality, awful, terrible.
* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 10, author=Arindam Rej, work=BBC Sport
, title=
As a noun mire
is deep mud; moist, spongy earth.As a verb mire
is to weigh down.As an adjective dire is
warning of bad consequences: ill-boding; portentous.mire
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) , whence Old English mos (English moss).Noun
(en noun)Synonyms
* (deep mud) peatland, quagHypernyms
* (deep mud) wetlandHyponyms
* (deep mud) bog, fenDerived terms
* mire crow * mire drum * miry * in the mire * quagmireVerb
(mir)- to mire a horse or wagon
- Smirched thus and mired with infamy.
Etymology 2
Perhaps related to Middle Dutch miere (Dutch mier). Cognate with Old Norse maurr, Danish myre. All probably from (etyl)Anagrams
* ----dire
English
Adjective
(en-adj)It's a gas, passage=One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains.
Norwich 4-2 Newcastle, passage=A second Norwich goal in four minutes arrived after some dire Newcastle defending. Gosling gave the ball away with a sloppy back-pass, allowing Crofts to curl in a cross that the unmarked Morison powered in with a firm, 12-yard header.}}