muddle

• POS: Noun, Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: mud=dle

CIDE DICTIONARY

muddle, v. t. [From Mud.].

•  To make turbid, or muddy, as water.  [1913 Webster]

  "He did ill to muddle the water."  [1913 Webster]
•  To cloud or stupefy; to render stupid with liquor; to intoxicate partially.  [1913 Webster]

  "Epicurus seems to have had brains so muddled and confounded, that he scarce ever kept in the right way."  [1913 Webster]

  "Often drunk, always muddled."  [1913 Webster]
•  To waste or misuse, as one does who is stupid or intoxicated.  [1913 Webster]

  "They muddle it [money] away without method or object, and without having anything to show for it."  [1913 Webster]
•  To mix confusedly; to confuse; to make a mess of; as, to muddle matters; also, to perplex; to mystify.  F. W. Newman.  [1913 Webster]

muddle, v. i. 

•  To dabble in mud.  Swift.  [1913 Webster]
•  To think and act in a confused, aimless way.  [1913 Webster]

muddle, n. 

 A state of being turbid or confused; hence, intellectual cloudiness or dullness.  [1913 Webster]
"We both grub on in a muddle."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

muddle, 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.

Idiom

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).

Derivative

muddler n. muddlingly adv.

Etymology

perh. f. MDu. moddelen, frequent. of modden dabble in mud (as MUD)

THESAURUS

muddle

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

ROGET THESAURUS

muddle

Disorder

N disorder, derangement, irregularity, anomaly, anarchy, anarchism, want of method, untidiness, disunion, discord, confusion, confusedness, mishmash, mix, disarray, jumble, huddle, litter, lumber, cahotage, farrago, mess, mash, muddle, muss, hash, hodgepodge, hotch-potch, hotch-pot, imbroglio, chaos, omnium gatherum, medley, mere mixture, fortuitous concourse of atoms, disjecta membra, rudis indigestaque moles, complexity, turmoil, ferment, to-do, trouble, pudder, pother, row, rumble, disturbance, hubbub, convulsion, tumult, uproar, revolution, riot, rumpus, stour, scramble, brawl, fracas, rhubarb, fight, free-for-all, row, ruction, rumpus, embroilment, melee, spill and pelt, rough and tumble, whirlwind, bear garden, Babel, Saturnalia, donnybrook, Donnybrook Fair, confusion worse confounded, most admired disorder, concordia discors, Bedlam, all hell broke loose, bull in a china shop, all the fat in the fire, diable a' quatre, Devil to pay, pretty kettle of fish, pretty piece of work, pretty piece of business, disorderly person, disorderly persons offence, misdemeanor, slattern, slut (libertine), disorderly, orderless, out of order, out of place, out of gear, irregular, desultory, anomalous, acephalous, deranged, aimless, disorganized, straggling, unmethodical, immethodical, unsymmetric, unsystematic, untidy, slovenly, dislocated, out of sorts, promiscuous, indiscriminate, chaotic, anarchical, unarranged &c (arrange), confused, deranged, topsy-turvy, shapeless, disjointed, out of joint, troublous, riotous, complex, irregularly, by fits, by fits and snatches, by fits and starts, pellmell, higgledy-piggledy, helter-skelter, harum-scarum, in a ferment, at sixes and sevens, at cross-purposes, upside down, the cart before the horse, hysteron proteron, chaos is come again, the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds.

Derangement

VB derange, disarrange, misarrange, displace, misplace, mislay, discompose, disorder, deorganize, discombobulate, disorganize, embroil, unsettle, disturb, confuse, trouble, perturb, jumble, tumble, shuffle, randomize, huddle, muddle, toss, hustle, fumble, riot, bring into disorder, put into disorder, throw into disorder, muss, break the ranks, disconcert, convulse, break in upon, unhinge, dislocate, put out of joint, throw out of gear, turn topsy-turvy, bedevil, complicate, involve, perplex, confound, imbrangle, embrangle, tangle, entangle, ravel, tousle, towzle, dishevel, ruffle, rumple, litter, scatter, mix, rearrange.

Inattention

VB be inattentive, overlook, disregard, pass by, not observe, think little of, close one's eyes to, shut one's eyes to, pay no attention to, dismiss from one's thoughts, discard from one's thoughts, discharge from one's thoughts, dismiss from one's mind, discard from one's mind, discharge from one's mind, drop the subject, think no more of, set aside, turn aside, put aside, turn away from, turn one's attention from, turn a deaf ear to, turn one's back upon, abstract oneself, dream, indulge in reverie, escape notice, escape attention, come in at one ear and go out at the other, forget, call off the attention, draw off the attention, call away the attention, divert the attention, distract the mind, put out of one's head, disconcert, discompose, put out, confuse, perplex, bewilder, moider, fluster, muddle, dazzle, throw a sop to Cerberus.

Absurdity

N absurdity, absurdness, imbecility alogy, nonsense, utter nonsense, paradox, inconsistency, stultiloquy, stultiloquence, nugacity, blunder, muddle, bull, Irishism, Hibernicism, slipslop, anticlimax, bathos, sophism, farce, galimathias, amphigouri, rhapsody, farrago, betise, extravagance, romance, sciamachy, sell, pun, verbal quibble, macaronic, jargon, fustian, twaddle, gibberish, exaggeration, moonshine, stuff, mare's nest, quibble, self- delusion, vagary, tomfoolery, poppycock, mummery, monkey trick, boutade, escapade, absurd, nonsensical, preposterous, egregious, senseless, inconsistent, ridiculous, extravagant, quibbling, self-annulling, self- contradictory, macaronic, punning, foolish sophistical, unmeaning, without rhyme or reason, fantastic, Int, fiddlededee!, pish!, pho!, in the name of the Prophet--figs!, credat Judaeus Apella, tell it to the marines.