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Swamp vs Mire - What's the difference?

swamp | mire |

As nouns the difference between swamp and mire

is that swamp is a piece of wet, spongy land; low ground saturated with water; soft, wet ground which may have a growth of certain kinds of trees, but is unfit for agricultural or pastoral purposes while mire is deep mud; moist, spongy earth.

As verbs the difference between swamp and mire

is that swamp is to drench or fill with water while mire is to weigh down.

swamp

English

Alternative forms

* (l) (obsolete)

Noun

(wikipedia swamp) (en noun)
  • A piece of wet, spongy land; low ground saturated with water; soft, wet ground which may have a growth of certain kinds of trees, but is unfit for agricultural or pastoral purposes.
  • A type of wetland that stretches for vast distances, and is home to many creatures who have adapted specifically to that environment.

    • Derived terms

    * swamp gum * swampland * swamp wallaby * swampy

    See also

    * bog * marsh * moor

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To drench or fill with water.
    • The boat was swamped in the storm.
  • To overwhelm; to make too busy, or overrun the capacity of.
    • I have been swamped with paperwork ever since they started using the new system.
  • * 2006 , New York Times,
    • Mr. Spitzer’s defeat of his Democratic opponent ... ended a primary season in which Hillary Rodham Clinton swamped an antiwar challenger for renomination to the Senate.
  • (figurative) To plunge into difficulties and perils; to overwhelm; to ruin; to wreck.
  • * J. R. Green
    • The Whig majority of the house of Lords was swamped by the creation of twelve Tory peers.
  • * W. Hamilton
    • Having swamped himself in following the ignis fatuus of a theory

    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

    * ----