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Mire vs Mure - What's the difference?

mire | mure |

In obsolete terms the difference between mire and mure

is that mire is an ant while mure is to enclose or imprison within walls.

As nouns the difference between mire and mure

is that mire is deep mud; moist, spongy earth while mure is wall.

As verbs the difference between mire and mure

is that mire is to weigh down while mure is to wall in or fortify.

As an adjective mure is

mural (as a postmodifier.

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

    * ----

    mure

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) wall
    • (Shakespeare)
    No, no; he cannot long hold out these pangs.
    Th' incessant care and labour of his mind
    Hath wrought the mure that should confine it in
  • :— Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II, [IV, 4], line 2870
  • (obsolete) husks of fruit from which the juice has been squeezed. Perhaps an old spelling of myrrh

    • References

    * Meaning "Husks of fruit": 1949', John Dover Wilson (compiler), ' Life in Shakespeare's England. A Book of Elizabethan Prose , Cambridge at the University Press. 1st ed. 1911, 2nd ed. 1913, 8th reprint. In Glossary and Notes. From Wright's Dialect Dict.

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (obsolete) mural (as a postmodifier)

    • Verb

  • (obsolete) to wall in or fortify
  • (obsolete) To enclose or imprison within walls.
    • (Spenser)
    The five kings are mured in a cave. — John. x. (Heading).

    Anagrams

    * ----