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Swarm vs Mire - What's the difference?

swarm | mire |

As nouns the difference between swarm and mire

is that swarm is a large number of insects, especially when in motion or (for bees) migrating to a new colony while mire is .

As a verb swarm

is (lb) to move as a swarm .

swarm

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A large number of insects, especially when in motion or (for bees) migrating to a new colony.
  • * Milton
    • a deadly swarm of hornets
  • A mass of people, animals or things in motion or turmoil.
    • a swarm of meteorites
  • * Addison
    • those prodigious swarms that had settled themselves in every part of it [Italy]
  • (label) A group of nodes sharing the same torrent in a BitTorrent network.

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • (lb) To move as a swarm .
  • *
  • *:There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy. Mail bags, so I understand, are being put on board. Stewards, carrying cabin trunks, swarm in the corridors.
  • (lb) To teem, or be overrun with insects, people, etc.
  • *(Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
  • *:Every place swarms with soldiers.
  • (lb) To fill a place as a swarm .
  • (lb) To overwhelm as by an opposing army.
  • To climb by gripping with arms and legs alternately.
  • * (1748–1828)
  • *:At the top was placed a piece of money, as a prize for those who could swarm up and seize it.
  • *1919 , , (The Moon and Sixpence) ,
  • *:She called out, and a boy came running along. He swarmed up a tree, and presently threw down a ripe nut. Ata pierced a hole in it, and the doctor took a long, refreshing draught.
  • To breed multitudes.
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:Not so thick swarmed once the soil / Bedropped with blood of Gorgon.

    • See also

    *

    Anagrams

    * (l) English collective nouns

    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

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