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Mire vs Mirage - What's the difference?

mire | mirage |

As nouns the difference between mire and mirage

is that mire is while mirage is an optical phenomenon in which light is refracted through a layer of hot air close to the ground, giving the appearance of there being refuge in the distance.

As a verb mirage is

to cause to appear as or like a mirage.

mire

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) , whence Old English mos (English moss).

Noun

(en noun)
  • 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.
    • Synonyms
    * (deep mud) peatland, quag
    Hypernyms
    * (deep mud) wetland
    Hyponyms
    * (deep mud) bog, fen
    Derived terms
    * mire crow * mire drum * miry * in the mire * quagmire

    Verb

    (mir)
  • To weigh down.
  • To cause or permit to become stuck in mud; to plunge or fix in mud.
    • to mire a horse or wagon
  • To soil with mud or foul matter.
  • * Shakespeare
    • 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)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) An ant.

    • Anagrams

    * ----

    mirage

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An optical phenomenon in which light is refracted through a layer of hot air close to the ground, giving the appearance of there being refuge in the distance.
  • (figuratively) An illusion.

    • See also

    * (Mirage) * fata morgana * illusion * optical illusion

    Verb

    (mirag)
  • To cause to appear as or like a mirage.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1915, author=E. Phillips Oppenheim, title=Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage=All that had been in his mind seemed suddenly miraged before him—the removal of Hunterleys, his own wife's failing health. }}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1901, author=A. E. W. Mason, title=Ensign Knightley and Other Stories, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage=The vision of a salon was miraged before her, with herself in the middle deftly manipulating the destinies of a nation. }}

    Anagrams

    * ----