Obs. Also 6 -myre, -mier, 8 dial. whamire. [? var. of quall- or quavemire: see QUAGMIRE, and cf. Sc. quaw-mire s.v. QUAW.] A quagmire, bog. Also fig.
1555. Eden, Decades, 99. Muddy marysshes full of suche quamyres that men are oftentymes swalowed vp in them.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 75. For quamier get bootes.
1579–80. North, Plutarch (1595), 678. There was a certaine quamire before him that ran with a swift running streame.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, iii. 32. If we wil get out of the Quamyre of our sinnes. Ibid., xix. 302. Orpheus … as for the wicked … burieth them in a quamire.
1703. Thoresby, Lett. to Ray, 27 April (E. D. S.). Whamire, a quagmire.
