Adjacent Words

Muddle definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

MUD'DLE, v.t. [from mud.] To make foul, turbid or muddy, as water.
He did ill to muddle the water.
1. To intoxicate partially; to cloud or stupefy, particularly with liquor.
He was often drunk, always muddled.
Epicurus seems to have had his brains muddled.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a confused multitude of things [syn: clutter, jumble, muddle, fuddle, mare's nest, welter, smother]
2: informal terms for a difficult situation; "he got into a terrible fix"; "he made a muddle of his marriage" [syn: fix, hole, jam, mess, muddle, pickle, kettle of fish] v
1: make into a puddle; "puddled mire" [syn: muddle, puddle]
2: mix up or confuse; "He muddled the issues" [syn: addle, muddle, puddle]

Merriam Webster's

I. verb (muddled; muddling) Etymology: probably from obsolete Dutch moddelen, from Middle Dutch, from modde mud; akin to Middle Low German mudde Date: 1676 transitive verb 1. to make turbid or muddy 2. to befog or stupefy especially with liquor 3. to mix confusedly 4. to make a mess of ; bungle intransitive verb to think or act in a confused aimless way • muddler noun II. noun Date: circa 1818 1. a state of especially mental confusion 2. a confused mess • muddly adjective

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v. & n. --v. 1 tr. (often foll. by up, together) bring into disorder. 2 tr. bewilder, confuse. 3 tr. mismanage (an affair). 4 tr. US crush and mix (the ingredients for a drink). 5 intr. (often foll. by with) busy oneself in a confused and ineffective way. --n. 1 disorder. 2 a muddled condition. Phrases and idioms: make a muddle of 1 bring into disorder. 2 bungle. muddle along (or on) progress in a haphazard way. muddle-headed stupid, confused. muddle-headedness stupidity; a confused state. muddle through succeed by perseverance rather than skill or efficiency. muddle up confuse (two or more things). Derivatives: muddler n. muddlingly adv. Etymology: perh. f. MDu. moddelen, frequent. of modden dabble in mud (as MUD)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Muddle Mud"dle, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Muddled; p. pr. & vb. n. Muddling.] [From Mud.] 1. To make turbid, or muddy, as water. [Obs.] He did ill to muddle the water. --L'Estrange. 2. To cloud or stupefy; to render stupid with liquor; to intoxicate partially. Epicurus seems to have had brains so muddled and confounded, that he scarce ever kept in the right way. --Bentley. Often drunk, always muddled. --Arbuthnot. 3. To waste or misuse, as one does who is stupid or intoxicated. [R.] They muddle it [money] away without method or object, and without having anything to show for it. --Hazlitt. 4. To mix confusedly; to confuse; to make a mess of; as, to muddle matters; also, to perplex; to mystify. --F. W. Newman.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Muddle Mud"dle, v. i. 1. To dabble in mud. [Obs.] --Swift. 2. To think and act in a confused, aimless way.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Muddle Mud"dle, n. A state of being turbid or confused; hence, intellectual cloudiness or dullness. We both grub on in a muddle. --Dickens.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(muddles, muddling, muddled) 1. If people or things are in a muddle, they are in a state of confusion or disorder. My thoughts are all in a muddle... ...a general muddle of pencils and boxes... = mess N-VAR: oft in/into a N 2. If you muddle things or people, you get them mixed up, so that you do not know which is which. Already, one or two critics have begun to muddle the two names... = mix up, confuse VERB: V n • Muddle up means the same as muddle. The question muddles up three separate issues... He sometimes muddles me up with other patients. PHRASAL VERB: V P pl-n (not pron), V n P with n, also V pl-n P • muddled up I know that I am getting my words muddled up. ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. 1. Make muddy, make turbid. 2. Stupefy, fuddle, inebriate, confuse, make half drunk, make tipsy. 3. Make a mess of, muff, mull, spoil.

Moby Thesaurus

addle, addle the wits, amaze, anarchy, ataxia, baffle, ball up, bamboozle, be all thumbs, beat, becloud, bedazzle, befog, befuddle, befuddlement, bemuse, bewilder, bewilderment, blunder, blunder away, blunder into, blunder on, blunder upon, blur, blur distinctions, boggle, bollix, bollix up, botch, botchery, bother, botheration, buffalo, bug, bumble, bungle, butcher, chaos, cloud, clutter, commit a gaffe, complicate, confound, confuse, confusion, contrive, cope, daze, dazzle, deform, disarrange, disarray, disaster, discombobulate, discombobulation, discomfit, discomfiture, discompose, discomposure, disconcert, disconcertion, dishevel, disorder, disorganization, disorganize, disorient, disorientation, distort, distract, disturb, disturbance, embarrass, embarrassment, embrangle, entangle, fabulous formless darkness, faux pas, fiasco, floor, flounder, flummox, flunk, flurry, fluster, flutter, fog, fog up, foozle, foul up, foul-up, frenzy, fuddle, fuddlement, fumble, fuss, fuzz, garble, get, get along, get by, hash, hassle, haze, huddle, implicate, involve, jumble, jumble together, jungle, keep in suspense, knock galley-west, knot, license, lick, limp, litter, louse up, lumber, make do, make it, make uncertain, mar, maze, mess, mess up, miscue, mishmash, mismanage, misrule, mist, mix, mix up, mix-up, moider, morass, muck, muck up, mud, muddle through, muddlement, muddy, muff, mull, murder, murmur, muss, muss up, mutter, mystify, nonplus, obfuscate, obscure, overlook distinctions, perplex, perplexity, perturb, perturbation, pi, play havoc with, play hob with, pother, pucker, put out, puzzle, raise hell, ramify, rattle, ravel, riffle, rile, ruffle, rummage, scramble, scrape along, scrape through, screw up, screw-up, shambles, shuffle, slip, snafu, snarl, snarl up, spoil, stew, stick, stumble, stump, swallow, sweat, swivet, tangle, throw, throw into confusion, throw off, tizzy, topsy-turviness, trip, tumble, unform, unsettle, unsettlement, unshape, upset, washout