mire

Noun

• a difficulty or embarrassment that is hard to extricate yourself from
  • the country is still trying to climb out of the mire left by its previous president
    
  • caught in the mire of poverty
    

• deep soft mud in water or slush
  • they waded through the slop
    

• a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot

Verb

• soil with mud, muck, or mire
  • The child mucked up his shirt while playing ball in the garden
    

• be unable to move further
  • The car bogged down in the sand
    

• cause to get stuck as if in a mire
  • The mud mired our cart
    

• entrap
  • Our people should not be mired in the past
    

Related words

• Synonyms: 
  slop , quagmire , quag , morass , slack , muck , mud , muck up , grind to a halt , get stuck , bog down , entangle