Mires

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. To obstruct or entangle in mud; to involve in difficulties or moral issues; to cause to sink or become stuck in a challenging situation
2. To become bogged down in soft ground; to be caught in a dilemma or undesirable situation; to render something immobile or hindered
3. To trap in a marshy area; to entangle in problems or ethical predicaments; to immobilize or impede due to complications

Etymology: Mires is simply the plural of "mire," and the noun comes from Old Norse "mýrr," which English borrowed in the Middle English period. The Old Norse word meant a bog or marsh, and it shares a root with the Old English "mēos," the ancestor of "moss," since boggy ground was the natural home of moss. The English word also has an unexpected twin. Its Proto-Germanic ancestor is linked to the word for "ant," through a different English descendant, "mire" in the sense of ant, from Old English "mȳre." The two words are not related in meaning, but they share a distant Indo-European origin, so English ended up with two unrelated "mire" words descended from the same ancient root.

Synonyms: swamps, bogs, marshes, quagmires, wetlands

Antonyms: dry land, desert, plain, upland, highland