mire

noun

• 1a stretch of swampy or boggy ground:acres of land had been reduced to a mire
• [mass noun] soft mud or dirt: the roads retained their winter mire
• Ecology a wetland area or ecosystem based on peat.

• 2a complicated or unpleasant situation from which it is difficult to extricate oneself:the service is sinking in the mire of its own regulations

verb

• cause to become stuck in mud:sometimes a heavy truck gets mired down
• cover or spatter with mud: the horse waded through the red mud that mired it to its hocks
• (mire someone/thing in) involve someone or something in (a difficult situation):the economy is mired in its longest recession since the war