muddy
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmʌdi/
rhymes: -ʌdi
Forms: form: muddier
form: muddiest
Etymology: The adjective is derived from Late Middle English muddi, moddy, muddy (“covered with or full of mud, muddy”), from mud, mudde (“mud; turbid water”) + -i (suffix forming adjectives). Mud, mudde is possibly borrowed from Middle Dutch modde, and/or Middle Low German modde, mudde, from Proto-Germanic *mud-, *mudra- (“mud”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *mū-, *mew- (“moist”). The English word is analysable as mud + -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of’ forming adjectives). Doublet of muddle.
The verb is derived from the adjective.
cognates
* Middle Low German moddich, muddich (German Low German muddig (“muddy; mouldy”))
Senses: examples: text: He slogged across the muddy field.
text: Take off your muddy boots before you come inside.
text: It [the cistern] muſt be firmely and cloſely paued vvith clay and mortar, and after dravvne ouer and floored vvith the ſame mortar, to the ende that the vvater be not made muddy or taſt of the earth: […]
ref: 1606, Charles Steuens [i.e., Charles Estienne]; John Liebault [i.e., Jean Liébault], “The Seating and Situating of the Countrie Farme, with Other His Appurtinances”, in Richard Surflet, transl., Maison Rustique, or The Countrey Farme: […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield for Iohn Norton and Iohn Bill, →OCLC, book I, page 7:
text: [T]he augure, […] is a ſharpe inſtrument of yron made thinne vvith many ſharpe teeth, and ſo ſtriken into holes or muddie banks, vvhere they vvill many times catch a verie great aboundance of Eeles: […]
ref: 1616, Charles Steuens [i.e., Charles Estienne]; John Liebault [i.e., Jean Liébault]; Gervase Markham, “Of the Sorts of Fishes wherewith Pooles, Ponds, and Ditches, are to be Furnished”, in Richard Surflet, transl., Maison Rustique, or, The Countrey Farme. […], new edition, London: […] Adam Jslip for John Bill, →OCLC, book IV (That There are Two Sorts of Medowes), page 508:
text: All theſe Cocytus bounds vvith ſqualid Reeds, / VVith Muddy Ditches, and vvith deadly VVeeds: […]
ref: 1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 143, lines 686–687:
text: A long Canal the muddy Fenn divides, / And vvith a clear unſully'd Current glides; […]
ref: 1705, J[oseph] Addison, “From Rome to Naples”, in Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 188:
text: I came out of the army like dragging myself muddy out of a swamp. I wandered for a long time before going home to a remembered place I did not love.
ref: 1952 September 19, John Steinbeck, chapter 15, in East of Eden, Chicago, Ill.: Sears Readers Club, published 2002, →ISBN, section 3, page 170:
text: When faced with a rockier or muddier section, look ahead for the easiest way across. This might involve hopping from one rock to another, or looking for flat sections or patches of vegetation that might be grippier.
ref: 2021, Claire Maxted, “Quick Start”, in The Ultimate Trail Running Handbook: Get Fit, Confident and Skilled Up to Go from 5K to 50K, London: Bloomsbury Sport, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 25:
synonyms: word: oozy
word: clatchy
glosses: Covered or splashed with, or full of, mud (“wet soil”).
examples: text: The previously limpid water was now muddy as a result of the struggle between the alligator and the wild boar.
text: [A]s for his vvater [i.e., the horse's urine], the more pure, it is the better, and the more muddy, thicke, and pleaſant,^([sic – meaning unpleasant?]) ſo much the more vnhealthfull.
ref: 1610, Gervase Markham, “Of the Sixe Thing Not Naturall, How They Profit, and How They Hurt”, in Markhams Maister-peece. Or, What doth a Horse-man Lacke. Containing All Possible Knowledge whatsoeuer which doth Belong to any Smith, Farrier, or Horse-leech, Touching the Curing of All Manner of Diseases or Sorrances in Horses; […], London: […] Nicholas Okes, and are to be sold by Arthur Iohnson, […], →OCLC, 1st book (Containing All Cures Physicall, […]), page 21:
text: [T]he moſt generous VVines are the moſt muddy, before they are fine.
ref: a. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, “Northampton-shire”, in The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, →OCLC, page 291:
text: [I]n Italy one ſeldom ſees a River that is extreamly bright and limpid, moſt of 'em falling dovvn from the Mountains, that make their VVaters very troubled and muddy, […]
ref: 1705, J[oseph] Addison, “Pavia, Milan, &c.”, in Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 26:
glosses: Of water or some other liquid: containing mud or (by extension) other sediment in suspension; cloudy, turbid.
examples: text: [H]er garments, heauy vvith her drinke, / Pul'd the poore vvretch from her melodious buy^([sic – meaning lay]), / To muddy death.
ref: c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vii], page 276, column 2:
glosses: Of or relating to mud; also, having the characteristics of mud, especially in colour or taste.
glosses: Soiled with feces.
examples: text: There is a point of strand / Near Vada's tower and town; and on one side / The treacherous marsh divides it from the land, / Shadowed by pine and ilex forests wide, / And on the other creeps eternally, / Through muddy weeds, the shallow, sullen sea.
ref: 1818 (date written), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Mazenghi”, in Mary W[ollstonecraft] Shelley, editor, Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley, London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for John and Henry L[eigh] Hunt, […], published 1824, →OCLC, stanza 9, page 259:
glosses: Of an animal or plant: growing or living in mud.
examples: text: There's not the ſmalleſt orbe [in the sky] vvhich thou beholdſt, / But in his motion like an Angell ſings, / Still quiring to the young eide Cherubins; / Such harmony is in immortall ſoules, / But vvhilſt this muddy veſture of decay [i.e., the human body] / Doth groſſely cloſe in it, vve cannot heare it.
ref: c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto), [London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [for Thomas Heyes], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
text: Thou sweet Arabian Panchaia, / Perfume this nastie age, smugge Lesbia / Hath stinking lunges, although a simpring grace, / A muddy inside, though a sulphul'd face.
ref: 1599, W. Kinsayder or Theriomastix [pseudonyms; John Marston], “Fronti nulla fides”, in The Scourge of Villanie. […], London: […] I[ames] R[oberts], →OCLC; republished as G[eorge] B[agshawe] Harrison, editor, The Scourge of Villanie (The Bodley Head Quartos; 13), London: John Lane, The Bodley Head […]; New York, N.Y.: E[dward] P[ayson] Dutton & Company, 1925, →OCLC, page 16:
glosses: Dirty, filthy.
examples: text: To vvhat, my loue, ſhall I compare thine eyne? / Chriſtall is muddy.
ref: c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
text: Faces never lie, it is said. […] When a man speaks the truth in the spirit of truth, his eye is as clear as the heavens. When he has base ends, and speaks falsely, the eye is muddy and sometimes asquint.
ref: 1841, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Essay IV. Spiritual Laws.”, in Essays, Boston, Mass.: James Munroe and Company, →OCLC, page 128:
text: At the end of a class or a lecture, ask students to write for one or two minutes about the "muddiest point" of the lesson (the part of the lesson that is still not understood clearly).
ref: 2008 December, “Assessment, Grading, and Cheating”, in Classroom Management (Idea Book Series; Information Collection and Exchange Publication; no. M0088), Washington, D.C.: Office of Overseas Programming and Training Support, Information Collection and Exchange, Peace Corps, published March 2009, →OCLC, page 99:
text: [P]hilosophers often press thought experiments into service as a way of addressing a given philosophical problem by analogy: […] Thomson thinks the question of whether we are permitted to unplug ourselves from an unconscious violinist to whom we have been unwittingly attached admits of a fairly clear answer, and wants to bring that clarity to the muddier issue of abortion.
ref: 2019, David Egan, “Wittgenstein’s Pursuit of Authenticity in Philosophy”, in The Pursuit of an Authentic Philosophy: Wittgenstein, Heidegger, and the Everyday, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, part III (The Pursuit of an Authentic Philosophy), page 222:
glosses: Not clear.
glosses: Not clear.
Of a colour: not bright: dirty, dull.
synonyms: word: faint
word: wan
word: bland
word: colourless
word: dim
word: dingy
word: dull
word: faint
word: lackluster
word: leaden
word: muddy
word: sad
word: sober
word: uncolorful
word: unholiday
word: wan
glosses: Not clear.
Of an image: blurry or dim.
glosses: Not clear.
Of light: cloudy, opaque.
examples: text: The television picture is decent, but the sound is muddy.
glosses: Not clear.
Of sound (especially during performance, recording, or playback): indistinct, muffled.
examples: text: Do'ſt thinke I am ſo muddy, ſo vnſettled, / To appoint my ſelfe in this vexation?
ref: c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 280, column 1:
text: Againe they vvere not out of the Hebrevv fountaine (vvee ſpeake of the Latine Tranſlations of the Old Teſtament) but out of the Greeke ſtreame, therefore the Greeke being not altogether cleare, the Latine deriued from it muſt needs be muddie.
ref: 1611, [Miles Smith], “The Translators to the Reader”, in The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC:
text: If their doctrines are muddy, their notions are muddy: if their doctrines are bloody, their notions and tempers are bloody: but if their doctrines are clear, so are their notions, for their doctrine has given them a clear understanding of things.
ref: 1688, John Bunyan, “ The Water of Life; or, A Discourse Showing the Richness and Glory of the Grace and Spirit of the Gospel, as Set Forth in Scripture by this Term, ‘the Water of Life’”, in Henry Stebbing, editor, The Entire Works of John Bunyan, […], volume III, London: James S[prent] Virtue, […], published 1862, →OCLC, page 216, column 2:
text: On the ſcheme of this barbarous philoſophy, vvhich is the offſpring of cold hearts and muddy underſtandings, […] lavvs are to be ſupported only by their ovvn terrors, and by the concern, vvhich each individual may find in them, from his ovvn private ſpeculations, or can ſpare to them from his ovvn private intereſts.
ref: 1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC, page 115:
text: [S]oldiers acquire a little ſuperficial knowledge, ſnatched from the muddy current of converſation, and, from continually mixing with ſociety, they gain, what is termed a knowledge of the world; […]
ref: 1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, “The Prevailing Opinion of a Sexual Character Discussed”, in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, 1st American edition, Boston, Mass.: […] Peter Edes for Thomas and Andrews, […], published 1792, →OCLC, page 46:
text: Wretched as Voltaire's sneers and puns are, I think there is something more manly and earnest even in them, than in the present muddy French transcendentalism.
ref: 1840, M. A. Titmarsh [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], “Madame [George] Sand and the New Apocalypse”, in The Paris Sketch Book, volume II, London: John Macrone, […], →OCLC, page 105:
glosses: Not clear.
Of speech, thinking, or writing: ambiguous or vague; or confused, incoherent, or mixed-up; also, poorly expressed.
synonyms: muddled
examples: text: Our ovvn muddy atmoſphere, that vvraps us round in obſcurity, though it fails to gild our proſpects vvith ſun-ſhine, or our groves vvith fruitage, nevertheleſs anſvvers the calls of industry.
ref: 1791, Oliver Goldsmith, “Of Winds, Irregular and Regular”, in An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature. […], new edition, volume I, London: […] F[rancis] Wingrave, successor to Mr. [John] Nourse, […], →OCLC, page 333:
glosses: Not clear.
Of the air: not fresh; impure, polluted.
examples: text: [B]y the vvill of God the Heavenly Principle (though it be in it ſelf inviſible and undiſcernible) in due time becomes a Spirit of ſavoury and affectionate diſcernment betvvixt the evil and the good; betvvixt the pure vvaters that flovv from the holy Spirit, and the muddy and tumultuous ſuggeſtions of the Fleſh.
ref: 1653, Henry More, “Conjectura Cabbalistica. Or, A Conjectural Essay of Interpreting the Mind of Moses, in the Three First Chapters of Genesis, According to a Threefold Cabbala: Viz. Literal, Philosophical, Mystical, or, Divinely Moral. The Moral Cabbala. Chapter I.”, in A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr Henry More […], London: […] James Flesher for William Morden, […], published 1662, →OCLC, , paragraph 6, page 102:
text: Business is business; and your business, let me remind you, is too muddy for such airs.
ref: 1878 June–October, Robert Louis Stevenson, “[The Rajah’s Diamond.] Story of the House with the Green Blinds.”, in New Arabian Nights […], volume I, London: Chatto & Windus, […], published 1882, →OCLC, page 215:
text: I have been to the depths of the muddy lives of the Bertha Couttses of this world, and when, released from the current of gossip, I slowly rise to the surface again, I look at the daylight in wonder that it ever should be.
ref: 1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter XVIII, in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, [Germany?]: Privately printed, →OCLC, page 284:
glosses: Originally, morally or religiously wrong; corrupt, sinful; now, morally or legally dubious; shady, sketchy.
glosses: Of a person or their facial expression: angry, sad, or sulky.
examples: text: [N]ot that he gets drunk, for he is a very pious man, but he is always muddy.
ref: 1791, James Boswell, quoting Samuel Johnson, “[1776]”, in James Boswell, editor, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. […], volume II, London: […] Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, […], →OCLC, page 33:
synonyms: word: fuddled
word: muddled
word: Adrian Quist
word: adrip
word: aled up
word: all mops and brooms
word: arseholed
word: a sheet in the wind
word: a sheet in the wind's eye
word: bedrunken
word: befuddled
word: beliquored
word: besotted
word: besotten
word: bevvied
word: bibacious
word: bibulous
word: binned
word: bingoed
word: bladdered
word: blasted
word: blewed
word: blind
word: blind drunk
word: blitzed
word: blocked
word: blootered
word: blottoed
word: blue
word: bollocksed
word: bombed
word: boozy
word: bosky
word: bottled
word: Brahms
word: Brahms and Liszt
word: budgy
word: bungalowed
word: bungfu
word: burlin'
word: canned
word: clobbered
word: corned
word: cocked
word: cockeyed
word: crapulous
word: crocked
word: cunted
word: cup-shot
word: cup-shotten
word: cut
word: dead drunk
word: destroyed
word: disguised
word: drunk
word: drunk as a piper
word: drunked up
word: drunken
word: ebriated
word: ebriose
word: elephant's
word: elephant's trunk
word: elevated
word: faced
word: fap
word: fershnickered
word: flooey
word: floored
word: flush
word: flushed
word: flustered
word: fluted
word: fluthered
word: feeling no pain
word: fou
word: four sheets in the wind
word: fresh
word: fried
word: frosted
word: fuckered up
word: fuckfaced
word: fuddled
word: full
word: fuzzy-headed
word: fuzzy-minded
word: gassed
word: gattered
word: gee-eyed
word: gesuip
word: ginned
word: gished
word: glorious
word: groggified
word: groggy
word: half polluted
word: half cut
word: half lit
word: half seas over
word: hammered
word: have drink taken
word: have the sun in one's eyes
word: hazed
word: high as a Georgia pine
word: high as a kite
word: high
word: hog-whimpering
word: honkers
word: hooched up
word: hooted
word: hoovered
word: hosed
word: how came you so
word: impaired
word: in liquor
word: in one's altitudes
word: in one's cups
word: in the bag
word: in the drink
word: inebriate
word: inebriated
word: inebrious
word: insober
word: insobrietous
word: inter pocula
word: jaked
word: jarred
word: juiced
word: juiced up
word: kaylied
word: kisky
word: lamped
word: langered
word: langers
word: larruped
word: lash
word: lashed
word: lathered
word: legless
word: liquored up
word: liquory
word: lit
word: loaded
word: looped
word: loopy
word: loose
word: lubed
word: lubed up
word: lubricated
word: lushed
word: mad with it
word: maggot
word: maggoted
word: mashed
word: maudlin
word: medicated
word: messed up
word: monged
word: mortal
word: mortalled
word: Mozart and Liszt
word: muddled
word: muggy
word: mullered
word: munted
word: muzzy
word: MWI
word: nappy
word: newted
word: nimptopsical
word: obfuscated
word: obliviated
word: off one's box
word: off one's head
word: off one's tits
word: oiled
word: oiled up
word: Oliver
word: Oliver Twist
word: on the ran tan
word: ossified
word: out of it
word: out of one's box
word: out of one's face
word: out of one's head
word: out of sight
word: overcome
word: overrefreshed
word: overtaken
word: paralytic
word: parlatic
word: pickled
word: pie-eyed
word: pixilated
word: plastered
word: ploughed
word: plowed
word: polluted
word: potshot
word: potted
word: pounded
word: primed
word: puggled
word: quisby
word: raddled
word: rat-arsed
word: ratted
word: razzled
word: ripe
word: ripped
word: rolling
word: rubbered
word: sauced
word: sauced up
word: scammered
word: schloshed
word: schnockered
word: screwed
word: scuttered
word: sewed up
word: shedded
word: shellacked
word: shicker
word: shickered
word: shitty
word: skunked
word: slammed
word: slarmied
word: slizzard
word: sloppy drunk
word: sloshed
word: smashed
word: snockered
word: snookered
word: snozzled
word: snuffy
word: soaken
word: sodden
word: sotted
word: sottish
word: souped-up
word: soused
word: sozzled
word: sozzly
word: spanceled
word: spannered
word: spiffed
word: splashed
word: spongy
word: sprung
word: squiffed
word: steamboats
word: stewed
word: stinking
word: stinko
word: stoated
word: stoned
word: stonkered
word: stotious
word: strut
word: swacked
word: tanked
word: tanked up
word: temulent
word: temulentive
word: three sheets in the wind
word: three sheets to the wind
word: throwed
word: tight as a tick
word: tight
word: tilted
word: tippled
word: tipsy
word: tired and emotional
word: toasted
word: top-heavy
word: top-heavy with drink
word: toping
word: trashed
word: tuned
word: twatfaced
word: twisted
word: wastey
word: wazzed
word: wazzocked
word: well-oiled
word: wellied
word: wet
word: whittled
word: withered
word: wobbly
word: woozy
word: worse for liquor
word: worse for wear
word: wrecked
word: zoned
word: zonked
word: zooted
word: zorched
word: zotzed
glosses: Slightly drunk; tipsy.
Derived terms: muddily
muddiness
muddyish
Muddy Mississippi
Muddy York
nonmuddy
unmuddy