Picture ground that looks solid and then gives way. You step on it, you go down, and the ground closes around your foot and holds it. Pulling harder only sinks you further. Every meaning of mire keeps those two parts: something soft that you sink into, and the way it will not let go.
From the word’s history
The word came into English from Old Norse mýrr, a wet, boggy place, and it belongs to the same family as moss. So the oldest picture is not a dirty puddle but a whole stretch of soft wet ground — which is exactly the picture the modern uses still lean on.
這個字從古北歐語 mýrr 進到英文，本來指的是濕軟的沼地，跟 moss（苔蘚）屬於同一家族。所以最早的畫面不是一個小泥坑，而是一整片濕軟的地。今天的用法，不管是爛泥還是困境，靠的都還是這個畫面。
Wiktionary entry for mire (etymology 1), supplied in this packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:620679393:21164): 「From Middle English mire, a borrowing from Old Norse mýrr… Related to Proto-Germanic *meusą, whence Old English mēos… (English moss).」
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。