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turbid

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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Etymology tree
Ancient Greek τύρβη (túrbē)bor.?
Latin turba
Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-der.
Proto-Italic *-iðos
Latin -idus
Latin turbidusbor.
Middle English turbide
English turbid

    From Middle English turbide, borrowed from Latin turbidus (“disturbed”), from turba (“mass, throng, crowd, tumult, disturbance”).

    Pronunciation

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    Adjective

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    turbid (comparative more turbid, superlative most turbid)

    1. Having the lees or sediment disturbed; not clear. (of a liquid)
      Synonyms: confused, cloudy, disordered, disturbed, droff, roiled
      turbid water
      turbid wine
      • 1827, The Medico-chirurgical Review and Journal of Medical Science:
        On the 6th October, the 18th day of her illness, she presented the following phenomena: — pulse small and quick — urine yellow and turbid.
      • 1853, Pisistratus Caxton [pseudonym; Edward Bulwer-Lytton], “Final Chapter”, in “My Novel”; Or Varieties in English Life […], volume IV, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book twelfth, page 283:
        He seeks in vain to occupy his days with rural pursuits; he to whom the excitements of a metropolis, with all its corruption and its vices, were the sole sources of the turbid stream that he called "pleasure!"
      • 1907, E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey, Part II, XXIII [Uniform ed., p. 217]:
        He perceived more clearly the cruelty of Nature, to whom our refinement and piety are but as bubbles, hurrying downwards on the turbid waters.
      • 2004, Jukka A. Räty, Kai-Erik Peiponen, Toshimitsu Asakura, UV-Visible Reflection Spectroscopy of Liquids, →ISBN, page 30:
        This makes the estimation of the refractive index of the turbid liquid quite problematic.
      • 2005, Jeff Sparrow, Wild Brews: Beer Beyond the Influence of Brewer's Yeast, →ISBN:
        The resulting impression filled with turbid mash liquor, which was hand-pumped through a tube into a separate kettle.
      • 2013, Marten Scheffer, Ecology of Shallow Lakes, →ISBN, page ix:
        In the turbid state, the development of submerged vegetation is prevented by low underwater light levels.
    2. Smoky or misty.
      Synonyms: fumid, hazy; see also Thesaurus:nebulous
      • 1776, Joseph Priestley, Experiments And Observations On Different Kinds Of Air:
        Towards the last I increased the heat, and by that means produced a very turbid air, of which I collected a prodigious quantity.
      • 2012, Agnes Christina Laut, The Freebooters of the Wilderness, →ISBN:
        Involuntarily, he stepped behind some alder brush off the trail. Another flutter of wind thinning the turbid mist.
      • 2014, Thad Godish, Wayne T. Davis, Joshua S. Fu, Air Quality, →ISBN, page 112:
        The turbid air over major cities is often described as a dust dome.
    3. Unclear; confused; obscure.
      Synonyms: ambiguous, equivocal; see also Thesaurus:incomprehensible, Thesaurus:vague
      • 2010, Adrian Mackenzie, Wirelessness: Radical Empiricism in Network Cultures, →ISBN, page 1:
        Motion, to take a good example, is originally a turbid sensation, of which the native shape is perhaps best preserved in the phenomenon of vertigo.
      • 2012, Julia James, The Dark Side Of Desire, →ISBN:
        Those turbid emotions swirled inside him again—part frustration, part anxiety.
      • 2016, Cecilia Muratori, The First German Philosopher, →ISBN:
        In the aforementioned paragraph 406 of the Encyclopedia, magnetic ecstasy is described as a confused and turbid experience because its content does not present itself in rational form: for this reason the state of the somnambulist should not be considered as a possible path to cognition (Erkenntnis).

    Derived terms

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    Translations

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    Further reading

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