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Muddle   /mˈədəl/   Listen
noun
Muddle  n.  A state of being turbid or confused; hence, intellectual cloudiness or dullness. "We both grub on in a muddle."


verb
Muddle  v. t.  (past & past part. muddled; pres. part. muddling)  
1.
To make turbid, or muddy, as water. (Obs.) "He did ill to muddle the water."
2.
To cloud or stupefy; to render stupid with liquor; to intoxicate partially. "Epicurus seems to have had brains so muddled and confounded, that he scarce ever kept in the right way." "Often drunk, always muddled."
3.
To waste or misuse, as one does who is stupid or intoxicated. (R.) "They muddle it (money) away without method or object, and without having anything to show for it."
4.
To mix confusedly; to confuse; to make a mess of; as, to muddle matters; also, to perplex; to mystify.


Muddle  v. i.  
1.
To dabble in mud. (Obs.)
2.
To think and act in a confused, aimless way.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Muddle" Quotes from Famous Books



... the plan, to continue the expedition and strengthen it as fast as possible. To the American soldier at this distance it looks as though the French and British, perhaps in all good faith, planned to muddle along till the American authorities could be shown the fitness or the necessity of supporting the expedition with proper forces. But this was playing with a handful of Americans and other Allied troops a great game ...
— The History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki - Campaigning in North Russia 1918-1919 • Joel R. Moore
... lady well. She has a good heart, but was ever muddle-headed. She thanked that wag with a smile, and I heard her later in the evening boring most evidently that literary lion with elongated praise of the "Cloister and the Hearth" and "Adam Bede." They were among the few books she had ever read, and ...
— The Angel and the Author - and Others • Jerome K. Jerome
... no stimulants of any kind, and should be very sorry to do so. I thought it was now generally admitted that the more work a man has to do, the less he can afford to muddle himself in any way. But as I have never tried the experiment in using either alcohol or tobacco, and cannot afford to do it, I have no comparative experience to offer. It might be beneficial; I do not believe it ...
— Study and Stimulants • A. Arthur Reade
... drainage which have been thus far published, there is a vagueness in the arguments on this branch of the subject, which betrays a want of definite conviction in the minds of the writers; and which tends quite as much to muddle as to enlighten the ideas of the reader. In so far as the directions are given, whether fortified by argument or not, they are clearly empirical, and are usually very much qualified by considerations which weigh with unequal ...
— Draining for Profit, and Draining for Health • George E. Waring
... thinking? My head's all in a muddle. It's bad, no matter how you look at it. I sold my very youth to one I cannot love, just for a piece of bread, and from one day to another he becomes more ...
— Plays • Alexander Ostrovsky


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