bemire

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English

Etymology

be- +‎ mire

Pronunciation

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Verb

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  1. (archaic) To soil with mud or a similar substance.
    • 1603, John Davies, The Discovery of the Little World, with the Government Thereof, Oxford, p. 118,[1]
      The Minde, constrain’d the Bodies want to feele,
      Makes Salves of Earth the Bodies hurt to heale,
      Which doe the Mind bemire with thoughts vnfitt;
    • 1684, Nahum Tate (translator), “The Second Eclogue” in John Dryden (ed.), Miscellany Poems, London: Jacob Tonson, p. 13,[2]
      Ah me! while I fond wretch indulge my Dreams,
      Winds blast my Flow’rs, and Boars bemire my Streams.
    • 1726, Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, London: Benjamin Motte, Part II, Chapter 5, pp. 99-100,[3]
      There was a Cow-Dung in the Path, and I must needs try my Activity by attempting to leap over it. I took a Run, but unfortunately jumped short, and found my self just in the Middle up to my Knees. I waded through with some Difficulty, and one of the Footmen wiped me as clean as he could with his Handkerchief; for I was filthily bemired []
    • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter 29,[4]
      I wished to rise; but what could I put on? Only my damp and bemired apparel; in which I had slept on the ground and fallen in the marsh.
  2. (archaic) To immerse or trap in mire.
    • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress, London: Nath. Ponder, pp. 13-14,[5],[6]
      True, there are by the direction of the Law-giver, certain good and subs[tantial] Steps, placed even through the very midst of this Slough; but at such a time as this place doth much spue out [its filth] as it doth against change of weather, these steps are hardly seen; or if they be, Men through the diziness of their heads, step besides; and then they are bemired to purpose, notwithstanding the steps be there []
    • 1802, Rembrandt Peale, Account of the Skeleton of the Mammoth, a Non-Descript Carnivorous Animal of Immense Size Found in America, London, p. 38,[7]
      In two of the morasses there was not depth sufficient to have bemired an animal of such magnitude and strength []
    • 1888, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Black Arrow, Book I, Chapter 2,[8]
      I saw your horse bemired, and put him from his agony; which, by my sooth! an ye had been a more merciful rider, ye had done yourself.
    • 1912, Alice C. Thompson, The Good Old Days: A Comedy in One Act, Philadelphia: Penn Publishing, p. 9,[9]
      Likely the stage-coach is bemired. The roads at this season of the year are none too good.

Anagrams