Word: muddy Part of Speech: adj 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”)) Pronunciation: /ˈmʌdi/ 1. Covered or splashed with, or full of, mud (“wet soil”). Example: He slogged across the muddy field. Example: Take off your muddy boots before you come inside. 2. Of water or some other liquid: containing mud or (by extension) other sediment in suspension; cloudy, turbid. Example: The previously limpid water was now muddy as a result of the struggle between the alligator and the wild boar. Example: [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. 3. Of or relating to mud; also, having the characteristics of mud, especially in colour or taste. Example: [H]er garments, heauy vvith her drinke, / Pul'd the poore vvretch from her melodious buy^([sic – meaning lay]), / To muddy death. 4. Soiled with feces. Labels: euphemistic 5. Of an animal or plant: growing or living in mud. Labels: archaic Example: 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. 6. Dirty, filthy. Labels: figuratively Example: 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. Example: 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. 7. Not clear. Labels: figuratively Example: To vvhat, my loue, ſhall I compare thine eyne? / Chriſtall is muddy. Example: 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. 8. Not clear. Labels: figuratively Example: Muddy colors are often the result of mixing complementary colors—those opposite each other on the color wheel. 9. Not clear. Labels: figuratively 10. Not clear. Labels: figuratively 11. Not clear. Labels: figuratively Example: The television picture is decent, but the sound is muddy. 12. Not clear. Labels: figuratively Example: Do'ſt thinke I am ſo muddy, ſo vnſettled, / To appoint my ſelfe in this vexation? Example: 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. 13. Not clear. Labels: figuratively, literary, poetic Example: 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. 14. Originally, morally or religiously wrong; corrupt, sinful; now, morally or legally dubious; shady, sketchy. Labels: figuratively Example: [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. Example: Business is business; and your business, let me remind you, is too muddy for such airs. 15. Of a person or their facial expression: angry, sad, or sulky. Labels: archaic, figuratively 16. Slightly drunk; tipsy. Labels: figuratively, obsolete Example: [N]ot that he gets drunk, for he is a very pious man, but he is always muddy.