muddle along

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

1. idiomaticintransitiveTo live or work in an unorganized and unplanned way.

   Indeed, they may muddle along a little better, armed with the view that the world is subject to their control.

   1982, Michael Schudson, The Power of News, Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 170

   2 more examples

   Executives are content to muddle along as long as profits are satisfactory — Attention to operating matters is a child of adversity.

   1940, unnamed executive quoted in United States. Temporary National Economic Committee, Investigation of concentration of economic power, U.S. Government Printing Office, page 66

   But evidence from the past few years indicates that Russia will continue to muddle along and that, in a few years, it will probably “muddle upward”.

   2000, Angela Stent, Russia and Germany Reborn: Unification, the Soviet Collapse, and the New Europe, Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 238

   Synonyms: muggle, muddle on