muddy
Part of speech: adj
verb
noun
Morphological type: derivation
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”))
Base: mud
Affixes: -y
Inflected forms:
form: muddier
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: muddiest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: muddies
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: muddying
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: muddied
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: muddied
pos: verb
tags: past
form: muddies
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Covered or splashed with, or full of, mud (“wet soil”).
pos: adj
examples: He slogged across the muddy field.
Take off your muddy boots before you come inside.
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: […]
[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: […]
All theſe Cocytus bounds vvith ſqualid Reeds, / VVith Muddy Ditches, and vvith deadly VVeeds: […]
A long Canal the muddy Fenn divides, / And vvith a clear unſully'd Current glides; […]
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.
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.
gloss: Of water or some other liquid: containing mud or (by extension) other sediment in suspension; cloudy, turbid.
pos: adj
examples: The previously limpid water was now muddy as a result of the struggle between the alligator and the wild boar.
[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.
[T]he moſt generous VVines are the moſt muddy, before they are fine.
[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, […]
gloss: Of or relating to mud; also, having the characteristics of mud, especially in colour or taste.
pos: adj
examples: [H]er garments, heauy vvith her drinke, / Pul'd the poore vvretch from her melodious buy^([sic – meaning lay]), / To muddy death.
gloss: Soiled with feces.
pos: adj
tags: euphemistic
gloss: Of an animal or plant: growing or living in mud.
pos: adj
tags: archaic
examples: 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.
gloss: Dirty, filthy.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: 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.
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.
gloss: Not clear.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: To vvhat, my loue, ſhall I compare thine eyne? / Chriſtall is muddy.
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.
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).
[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.
gloss: Not clear.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: Muddy colors are often the result of mixing complementary colors—those opposite each other on the color wheel.
gloss: Not clear.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
gloss: Not clear.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
gloss: Not clear.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: The television picture is decent, but the sound is muddy.
gloss: Not clear.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: Do'ſt thinke I am ſo muddy, ſo vnſettled, / To appoint my ſelfe in this vexation?
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.
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.
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.
[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; […]
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.
gloss: Not clear.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
literary
poetic
examples: 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.
gloss: Originally, morally or religiously wrong; corrupt, sinful; now, morally or legally dubious; shady, sketchy.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: [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.
Business is business; and your business, let me remind you, is too muddy for such airs.
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.
gloss: Of a person or their facial expression: angry, sad, or sulky.
pos: adj
tags: archaic
figuratively
gloss: Slightly drunk; tipsy.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
obsolete
examples: [N]ot that he gets drunk, for he is a very pious man, but he is always muddy.
gloss: To cover or splash (someone or something) with mud.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: If you muddy your shoes don’t wear them inside.
[T]hey splashed George. He was quiet: they feared they had offended him. Then all the forces of youth burst out. He smiled, flung himself at them, splashed them, ducked them, kicked them, muddied them, and drove them out of the pool.
gloss: To make (water or some other liquid) cloudy or turbid by stirring up mud or other sediment.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: This is at the bottom a dictate of common ſenſe, or the inſtinct of ſelf-defence, peculiar to ignorant weakneſs; reſembling that inſtinct, which makes a fiſh muddy the water it ſwims in to allude its enemy, inſtead of boldly facing it in the clear ſtream.
His life had hitherto been so quiet, so free from strife; […] It was so hard that the pleasant waters of his little stream should be disturbed and muddied by rough hands; […]
gloss: To confuse (a person or their thinking); to muddle.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: The discussion only muddied their understanding of the subject.
VVhen ſorrovves comes,^([sic – meaning come]) they come not ſingle ſpies, / But in Battalia[n]es. Firſt, her Father ſlaine, / Next your Sonne gone, and he moſt violent Author / Of his ovvne iuſt remoue: the people muddied, / Thicke and vnvvholſome in their thoughts, […]
I only recreated an imagination, fatigued by contemplating the vices and follies which all proceed from a feculent ſtream of wealth that has muddied the pure rills of natural affection, […]
Habitual topers, I believe, acquire the power of soaking themselves with a quantity of liquor which does little more than muddy those intellects, that, in their sober state, are none of the clearest; […]
gloss: To damage (a person or their reputation); to sully, to tarnish.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
gloss: To make (a colour) dirty, dull, or muted.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: The addition of the second batch of paint muddied the bright colours to a dull and washed look.
gloss: To make (a matter, etc.) more complicated or unclear; to make a mess of (something).
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: As the humans establish tentative bonds with their evolutionary cousins, the inter-species waters start to muddy.
It may have been effective at conveying the confusion of the situation, but it didn't make for terribly thrilling scenes. The blurry camerawork (quite literally at times) and rapid-fire editing meant that exchanges of blows that should have been viscerally thrilling were often muddied, good for capturing the mood but not much fun to watch.
gloss: To make (something) impure; to contaminate.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
gloss: To cause or permit (someone or something) to become stuck in mud; to mire.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
obsolete
transitive
examples: […] I am novv ſir muddied in fortunes mood, and ſmell ſomevvhat ſtrong of her ſtrong diſpleaſure.
gloss: Sometimes followed by up: to become covered or splashed with mud; to become dirty or soiled.
pos: verb
tags: also
figuratively
intransitive
gloss: Of water or some other liquid: to become cloudy or turbid.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Malt before hops, the world over, or the beer muddies.
gloss: To become contaminated or impure.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
intransitive
gloss: The edible mud crab or mangrove crab (Scylla serrata).
pos: noun
tags: Australia
New-South-Wales
informal
Derived words: muddily
muddiness
muddyish
Muddy Mississippi
Muddy York
nonmuddy
unmuddy
muddier
muddying
muddy up
muddy the waters
muddy the water
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: кален
roman: kalen
lang: Bulgarian
word: мръсен
roman: mrǎsen
lang: Catalan
word: fangós
lang: Cherokee
word: ᏝᏬᏚᎯ
roman: tlawoduhi
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 渾 /浑
roman: hún
lang: Czech
word: blátivý
lang: Czech
word: zablácený
lang: Dagbani
word: biɛtibiɛti
lang: Danish
word: mudret
lang: Esperanto
word: kota
lang: Faroese
word: runutur
lang: Finnish
word: kurainen
lang: Finnish
word: kurassa
lang: Finnish
word: mutainen
lang: Finnish
word: mudassa
lang: Finnish
word: rapainen
lang: Finnish
word: ravassa
lang: French
word: boueux
lang: French
word: vaseux
lang: German
word: schlammig
lang: German
word: matschig
lang: Hungarian
word: saras
lang: Hungarian
word: sáros
lang: Icelandic
word: forugur
lang: Indonesian
word: berlumpur
lang: Ingrian
word: mutaisikko
lang: Ingrian
word: retuisa
lang: Interlingua
word: fangose
lang: Irish
word: abarach
lang: Irish
word: draoibeach
lang: Irish
word: lábach
lang: Italian
word: fangoso
lang: Kapampangan
word: maburak
lang: Latin
word: līmōsus
lang: Latin
word: luteolus
lang: Latin
word: luteus
lang: Latin
word: lutulentus
lang: Macedonian
word: каллив
roman: kalliv
lang: Mirandese
word: barrento
lang: Plautdietsch
word: blottich
lang: Polish
word: błocisty
lang: Polish
word: błotnisty
lang: Portuguese
word: barroso
lang: Portuguese
word: lodoso
lang: Portuguese
word: lamacento
lang: Portuguese
word: barrento
lang: Portuguese
word: enlameado
lang: Russian
word: гря́зный
roman: grjáznyj
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: бла̀тан
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: blàtan
lang: Spanish
word: barroso
lang: Spanish
word: enfangado
lang: Spanish
word: fangoso
lang: Spanish
word: lodoso
lang: Spanish
word: turbio
lang: Sundanese
word: bolokot
lang: Swedish
word: lerig
lang: Tagalog
word: maputik
lang: Thai
word: เลอะโคลน
roman: lə́-kloon
lang: Turkish
word: çamurlu
lang: Ottoman Turkish
word: چامورلو
roman: çamurlu
lang: Ukrainian
word: брудни́й
roman: brudnýj
lang: Vietnamese
word: bùn lầy
lang: Vietnamese
word: lầy lội
lang: Vietnamese
word: sình lầy