different between mire vs big

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?ma??/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?ma??/, /?ma??/
• Rhymes: -a??(r)

Etymology 1

From Middle English mire, a borrowing from Old Norse mýrr, from Proto-Germanic *miuzij?, whence also Swedish myr, Norwegian myr, Icelandic mýri, Dutch *mier (in placenames, for example Mierlo). Related to Proto-Germanic *meus?, whence Old English m?os, and Proto-Germanic *mus?, whence Old English mos (English moss).

Noun

mire (countable and uncountable, plural mires)

1. 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. (Charles Lamb, Tales from Shakespeare, Hatier, coll. « Les Classiques pour tous » n° 223, p. 51)

   Synonyms: peatland, quag

   Hypernym: wetland

   Hyponyms: bog, fen

2. An undesirable situation, a predicament.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

mire (third-person singular simple present mires, present participle miring, simple past and past participle mired)

1. (transitive) To cause or permit to become stuck in mud; to plunge or fix in mud.

   Synonyms: bemire, enmire

2. (intransitive) To sink into mud.
3. (transitive, figuratively) To weigh down.
4. (intransitive) To soil with mud or foul matter.
   • c. 1598, William Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing, Act IV, Scene 1,^[2]

     Why had I not with charitable hand

     Took up a beggar’s issue at my gates,

     Who smirch’d thus and mired with infamy,

     I might have said ‘No part of it is mine;

     This shame derives itself from unknown loins’?

   Synonym: bemire

Derived terms

• unmired

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English mire, from Old English *m?re, *m?ere, from Proto-Germanic *miurij?. Cognate to Old Norse maurr, Danish myre, Middle Dutch miere (“ant”) (Dutch mier). All probably from Proto-Indo-European *morwi- (“ant”), whence also cognate to Latin form?ca.

Noun

mire (plural mires)

1. (obsolete) An ant.

Related terms

Anagrams

• IMer, Meir, Meri, emir, meri, reim, riem, rime

Asturian

Verb

mire

1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive of mirar

Esperanto

Etymology

From miri +? -e.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?mire/
• Hyphenation: mi?re
• Rhymes: -ire

Adverb

mire

1. in surprise, in awe, in an amazed way

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mi?/

Etymology 1

From Italian mira, from Latin m?r? (“I wonder at”).

Noun

mire f (plural mires)

1. (archaic) aim (action of aiming)
2. foresight (of rifle)
3. target (literal, figurative)
4. (television) test pattern
5. (surveying) rod (measuring tool)

Derived terms

• ligne de mire
• point de mire

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

mire

1. inflection of mirer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “mire” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• émir, Remi, Rémi, rime, rimé

Galician

Verb

mire

1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive of mirar

Hungarian

Etymology

mi (“what?”) +? -re (sublative case suffix)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?mir?]
• Hyphenation: mi?re
• Rhymes: -r?

Pronoun

mire

1. sublative singular of mi

Pronoun

mire

1. for what (purpose)?

Adverb

mire (not comparable)

1. whereupon (after which, in consequence)

2. by the time, when

Derived terms

• amire

Further reading

• mire in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh: A magyar nyelv értelmez? szótára (’The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: ?ISBN

Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?????/

Etymology 1

From Old Irish mire (“madness, frenzy, infatuation”).

Noun

mire f (genitive singular mire)

1. quickness, rapidity
2. spiritedness, ardor
3. madness, frenzy, mania

   Synonym: buile

Declension

Derived terms

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Adjective

mire

1. inflection of mear:
   1. genitive feminine singular
   2. comparative degree

Mutation

References

• "mire" in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.
• Gregory Toner, Maire Ní Mhaonaigh, Sharon Arbuthnot, Dagmar Wodtko, Maire-Luise Theuerkauf, editors (2019) , “mire”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Entries containing “mire” in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm, 1959, by Tomás de Bhaldraithe.
• Entries containing “mire” in New English-Irish Dictionary by Foras na Gaeilge.

Italian

Noun

mire f

1. plural of mira

Anagrams

• meri, remi, rime

Ladin

Verb

mire

1. inflection of mirer:
   1. first-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. third-person singular/plural present subjunctive

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?mi?.re/, [?mi???]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?mi.re/, [?mi???]

Participle

m?re

1. vocative masculine singular of m?rus

References

• mire in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• mire in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

Middle English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Old Norse mýrr, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *miuzij?.

Alternative forms

• myre, myer, muire, myrre, muyre

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mi?r/
• (SW England) IPA^(key): /my?r/

Noun

mire (plural mires)

2. Marshy or swampy land; a mire or peat.
3. A region of marshy or swampy land.
4. A muddy or dirt-covered region.
5. (figuratively) Iniquity, sinfulness; immoral behaviour.
6. (rare) A quagmire or conundrum.
7. (rare) A puddle or pond; a watery hollow.

Derived terms

• myren

Descendants

• English: mire (“swamp”)
• Scots: mire

References

• “m?re, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-08-20.

Etymology 2

Inherited from Old English *m?re, *m?ere, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *miurij?.

Alternative forms

• myre

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?mi?r(?)/

Noun

mire

2. ant

Derived terms

• pissemyre

Descendants

• English: mire (“ant”) (obsolete)

References

• “m?re, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-07-20.

Portuguese

Verb

mire

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of mirar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of mirar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of mirar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of mirar

Romanian

Etymology

Possibly a substratum word, or from Greek ????? (mýron, “ointment, uncture, holy oil”), relating to the ceremony of the Orthodox wedding. Another theory suggests Latin m?les (“soldier”), possibly mirroring semantic evolution of the rare voin? (“husband”), from Slavic ????? (voin?, “warrior”). Other less likely etymologies proposed include Turkish amir (“chief”), Cuman mir ("prince"), a Vulgar Latin *milex, from Ancient Greek ?????? (meîrax, “adolescent; boy”), or an old Indo-European term.

Possibly related to Albanian mirë (“good”). Replaced m?rit, which only survived in some regional dialects.

Noun

mire m (plural miri, feminine equivalent mireas?)

1. bridegroom

Derived terms

• mireas?

See also

• mir
• so?

References

Scottish Gaelic

Etymology

From Old Irish mire (“madness, frenzy, infatuation”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m?i???/

Noun

mire f (genitive singular mire, plural mirean)

1. merriment, mirth, frolic

Derived terms

• gille-mirein

Mutation

References

• “mire” in Edward Dwelly, Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan/The Illustrated [Scottish] Gaelic–English Dictionary, 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, 1911, ?ISBN.
• Gregory Toner, Maire Ní Mhaonaigh, Sharon Arbuthnot, Dagmar Wodtko, Maire-Luise Theuerkauf, editors (2019) , “mire”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

Serbo-Croatian

Verb

mire (Cyrillic spelling ????)

1. third-person plural present of miriti

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?mi?e/, [?mi.?e]

Verb

mire

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of mirar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of mirar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of mirar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of mirar.

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: b?g, IPA^(key): /b??/
• Rhymes: -??

Etymology 1

From a northern Middle English dialectal term big, bigge (“powerful, strong”) possibly from a dialect of Old Norse. Ultimately perhaps a derivative of Proto-Germanic *bugja- (“swollen up, thick”), in which case big would be related to bogey, bugbear, and bug.

Compare dialectal Norwegian bugge (“great man”), Low German Bögge, Boggelmann.

Adjective

big (comparative bigger, superlative biggest)

1. Of great size, large.

   Synonyms: ample, huge, large, sizeable, stoor, jumbo, massive; see also Thesaurus:big

   Antonyms: little, small, tiny, minuscule, miniature, minute

   • The big houses, and there are a good many of them, lie for the most part in what may be called by courtesy the valleys. You catch a glimpse of them sometimes at a little distance from the [railway] line, […], with their court of farm and church and clustered village, in dignified seclusion.
2. (of an industry or other field, often capitalized) Thought to have undue influence.
3. Popular.

   Synonyms: all the rage, in demand, well liked
4. (informal) Adult.

   Synonyms: adult, fully grown, grown up; see also Thesaurus:full-grown

   Antonyms: little, young

   • 1931, Robert L. May, Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer, Montgomery Ward (publisher), draft:

     By midnight, however, the last light had fled / For even big people have then gone to bed[.]

5. (informal) Fat.

   Synonyms: chubby, plus-size, rotund; see also Thesaurus:overweight

6. (informal) Important or significant.

   Synonyms: essential, paramount, weighty; see also Thesaurus:important

   • "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. Then I ran away and sold papers in the streets, and anything else that I could pick up a few coppers by—except steal. I never did that. I always made up my mind I'd be a big man some day, and—I'm glad I didn't steal."
7. (informal, with on) Enthusiastic (about).

   Synonyms: fanatical, mad, worked up; see also Thesaurus:enthusiastic

   • 2019, Louise Taylor, Alex Morgan heads USA past England into Women’s World Cup final (in The Guardian, 2 July 2019)[3]

     Neville is big on standing by his principles and he deserves plaudits for acknowledging he got his starting system wrong, reverting to 4-2-3-1 and introducing Kirby in the No 10 role.

9. (informal, transitive with of) Mature, conscientious, principled; generous.
10. (informal) Well-endowed, possessing large breasts in the case of a woman or a large penis in the case of a man.

    Synonyms: busty, macromastic, stacked; see also Thesaurus:busty

11. (sometimes figuratively) Large with young; pregnant; swelling; ready to give birth or produce.

    Synonyms: full, great, heavy; see also Thesaurus:pregnant

    • [Day] big with the fate of Cato and of Rome.

12. (informal) Used as an intensifier, especially of negative-valence nouns

13. (of a city) populous
14. (informal, slang, rare, of somebody's age) old, mature. Used to imply that somebody is too old for something, or acting immaturely.
    • 2020, Candice Carty-Williams, Notting Hill Carnival

      I don't think so, if you're shouting at people across the playground at your big age.

Derived terms

Translations

Adverb

big (comparative bigger, superlative biggest)

1. In a loud manner.
2. In a boasting manner.

   He's always talking big, but he never delivers.

3. In a large amount or to a large extent.

   He won big betting on the croquet championship.

4. On a large scale, expansively.

   You've got to think big to succeed at Amalgamated Plumbing.

5. Hard.

   He hit him big and the guy just crumpled.

Noun

big (plural bigs)

1. Someone or something that is large in stature
2. An important or powerful person; a celebrity; a big name.
3. (as plural) The big leagues, big time.
4. (BDSM, slang) The participant in ageplay who acts out the older role.

Synonyms

• (big leagues): major leagues

Antonyms

• (BDSM): little

Verb

big (third-person singular simple present bigs, present participle bigging, simple past and past participle bigged) (up)

1. (transitive) To praise, recommend, or promote.

Etymology 2

From Middle English biggen, byggen, from Old Norse byggja, byggva (“to build, dwell in, inhabit”), a secondary form of Old Norse búa (“to dwell”), related to Old English b?an (“to dwell”). Cognate with Danish bygge, Swedish bygga.

Verb

big (third-person singular simple present bigs, present participle bigging, simple past and past participle bigged)

1. (transitive, archaic or Britain dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) to inhabit; occupy
2. (reflexive, archaic or Britain dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) to locate oneself
3. (transitive, archaic or Britain dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) to build; erect; fashion
4. (intransitive, archaic or Britain dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) to dwell; have a dwelling

Etymology 3

From Middle English byge, from Old Norse bygg (“barley, probably Hordeum vulgare, common barley”), from Proto-Germanic *bewwuz (“crop, barley”). Cognate with Old English b?ow (“barley”).

Alternative forms

• bigg
• bygg, bygge (obsolete)

Noun

big (uncountable)

1. One or more kinds of barley, especially six-rowed barley.

Anagrams

• GBI, GiB, Gib., gib

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch bagge, vigge. Originally a word exclusive to the Northern Dutch dialects.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b?x/
• Hyphenation: big
• Rhymes: -?x

Noun

big m or f (plural biggen, diminutive biggetje n)

1. piglet, little pig

   Synonym: keu

Derived terms

• biggenkruid

Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b???/

Adjective

big

1. inflection of beag:
   1. vocative/genitive masculine singular
   2. (archaic) dative feminine singular

Mutation

Italian

Noun

big m (invariable)

1. star (entertainment)
2. big shot, big noise

Scots

Etymology

From Old Norse byggja (“inhabit, build”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b??/

Verb

big (third-person singular present bigs, present participle biggin, past biggit, past participle biggit)

1. to build

Torres Strait Creole

Etymology

From English big, cognate with (the first part of) Bislama bikfala, bigfala, Pijin bigfala, Tok Pisin bikpela.

Adjective

big

1. big

Derived terms

Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bi??/

Noun

big

1. Soft mutation of pig.

Mutation

Western Apache

Etymology

From Proto-Athabaskan *-w??t?.

Cognates: Navajo -bid, Plains Apache -bid.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [p??k]

Noun

big (inalienable)

1. belly, stomach, abdomen

Usage notes

• The form -big occurs in the White Mountain varieties; -bid occurs in San Carlos and Dilzhe’eh (Tonto).