muddle

present singular third person muddles · participle present muddling · participle past muddled · past muddled

1. To mix together, to mix up; to confuse.

   Young children tend to muddle their words.

   1 more example

   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

   1847, Francis William Newman, A History of the Hebrew Monarchy

2. To mash slightly for use in a cocktail.

   He muddled the mint sprigs in the bottom of the glass.

3. 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

4. To make turbid or muddy.

   He did ill to Muddle the Water.

   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

5. To think and act in a confused, aimless way.
6. To cloud or stupefy; to render stupid with liquor; to intoxicate partially.

   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.

   1692, Richard Bentley, [A Confutation of Atheism] (please specify the sermon), London: [Thomas Parkhurst; Henry Mortlock], published 1692–1693

   1 more example

   […] I vvas for five Years often drunk, alvvays muddled, they carry'd me from Tavern to Tavern, to Alehouſes and Brandy Shops, and brought me acquainted vvith ſuch ſtrange Dogs!

   1733, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], Alexander Pope, compiler, “Law is a Bottomless Pit. Or, The History of John Bull. […]. The Second Part. Chapter VIII. A Continuation of the Conversation betwixt John Bull and His Wife.”, in Miscellanies, 2nd edition, volume II, London: […] Benjamin Motte, […], →OCLC, page 99

7. To waste or misuse, as one does who is stupid or intoxicated.

   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

plural muddles

1. A mixture; a confusion; a garble.

   The muddle of nervous speech he uttered did not have much meaning.

   1 more example

   As a result, no single party or coalition immediately gained enough parliamentary seats to govern, thrusting Spain into a familiar political muddle and giving new life to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who only days ago seemed moribund.

   2023 July 24, Jason Horowitz, “What the Collapse of Spain’s Far Right Means Going Forward”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

2. cooking and cocktailsA mixture of crushed ingredients, as prepared with a muddler.
3. archaicA muddy mess.

   I must drive as quick with a thunder-rain pelting in my face, and the roads in a muddle, and the horses starting—I can’t call it shying, I have ’em too well in hand,—at every flash, just as quick as if it was a fine hard road, and fine weather.

   1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861

plural muddles

1. IndiahistoricalA servant's attendant; underservant.

   I have an ayah (or lady's maid), and a tailor (for the ayahs cannot work); and A—84 has a boy: also two muddles—one to sweep my room, and another to bring water.

   2022, Carl Thompson, Katrina O'Loughlin, Éadaoin Agnew, Women's Travel Writings in India 1777–1854, page 201

   1 more example

   We bought a few rugs and odds and ends and our sitting room looks quite European; then we have a bedroom with 2 beds and a dressing room, also a corridor for the muddles and servants.

   1985, Lizzie Hessel, Ann Brown, Anne Rose, Lizzie: A Victorian Lady's Amazon Adventure, page 132