muddle
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle Dutch moddelen (“to make muddy”), from modde, mod (“mud”) (Modern Dutch modder). Compare German Kuddelmuddel.
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈmʌdl̩/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈmʌd(ə)l/
Audio (GA) (file) - Rhymes: -ʌdəl
- Hyphenation: mud‧dle
Verb[edit]
muddle (third-person singular simple present muddles, present participle muddling, simple past and past participle muddled)
- To mix together, to mix up; to confuse.
- Young children tend to muddle their words.
- 1847, Francis William Newman, A History of the Hebrew Monarchy
- I will not , to please hostile critics , muddle the argument by making it one of recondite learning , in which neither I nor my readers are strong . I try to lay before the reader reasons from which he can judge for himself
- To mash slightly for use in a cocktail.
- He muddled the mint sprigs in the bottom of the glass.
- To dabble in mud.
- c. 1721-1722, Jonathan Swift, The Progress of Marriage
- Young ducklings foster'd by a hen;
But, when let out, they run and muddle
- Young ducklings foster'd by a hen;
- c. 1721-1722, Jonathan Swift, The Progress of Marriage
- To make turbid or muddy.
- 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], OCLC 228727523:
- He did ill to Muddle the Water.
- To think and act in a confused, aimless way.
- To cloud or stupefy; to render stupid with liquor; to intoxicate partially.
- 1692, Richard Bentley, A Confutation of Atheism
- Their old master Epicurus seems to have had his brains so muddled and confounded with them, that he scarce ever kept in the right way.
- 1712, John Arbuthnot, The History of John Bull:
- often drunk, always muddled
- 1692, Richard Bentley, A Confutation of Atheism
- To waste or misuse, as one does who is stupid or intoxicated.
- 1821, William Hazlitt, On the Want of Money
- They muddle it [money] away without method or object, and without having anything to show for it.
- 1821, William Hazlitt, On the Want of Money
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
mix together, to mix up; to confuse
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Noun[edit]
muddle (plural muddles)
- A mixture; a confusion; a garble.
- The muddle of nervous speech he uttered did not have much meaning.
- (cooking and cocktails) A mixture of crushed ingredients, as prepared with a muddler.
Translations[edit]
a mixture; a confusion; a garble
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Derived terms[edit]
Categories:
- English terms derived from Middle Dutch
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ʌdəl
- Rhymes:English/ʌdəl/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Cooking
- en:Drinking