muddy

adj

1. Covered or splashed with, or full of, mud (“wet soil”).

   “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: […]”

2. Of water or some other liquid: containing mud or (by extension) other sediment in suspension; cloudy, turbid.

   “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, […]”

3. Of or relating to mud; also, having the characteristics of mud, especially in colour or taste.

   “[H]er garments, heauy vvith her drinke, / Pul'd the poore vvretch from her melodious buy^([sic – meaning lay]), / To muddy death.”

4. (euphemistic)Soiled with feces.
5. (archaic)Of an animal or plant: growing or living in mud.

   “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. (figuratively)Dirty, filthy.

   “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.”

7. (figuratively)Not clear.

   “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.”

8. (figuratively)Not clear.

   “Muddy colors are often the result of mixing complementary colors—those opposite each other on the color wheel.”

9. (figuratively)Not clear.
10. (figuratively)Not clear.
11. (figuratively)Not clear.

    “The television picture is decent, but the sound is muddy.”

12. (figuratively)Not clear.

    “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; […]”

13. (figuratively, literary, poetic)Not clear.

    “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. (figuratively)Originally, morally or religiously wrong; corrupt, sinful; now, morally or legally dubious; shady, sketchy.

    “[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.”

15. (archaic, figuratively)Of a person or their facial expression: angry, sad, or sulky.
16. (figuratively, obsolete)Slightly drunk; tipsy.

    “[N]ot that he gets drunk, for he is a very pious man, but he is always muddy.”

verb

1. (transitive)To cover or splash (someone or something) with mud.

   “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.”

2. (transitive)To make (water or some other liquid) cloudy or turbid by stirring up mud or other sediment.

   “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; […]”

3. (figuratively, transitive)To confuse (a person or their thinking); to muddle.

   “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; […]”

4. (figuratively, transitive)To damage (a person or their reputation); to sully, to tarnish.
5. (figuratively, transitive)To make (a colour) dirty, dull, or muted.

   “The addition of the second batch of paint muddied the bright colours to a dull and washed look.”

6. (figuratively, transitive)To make (a matter, etc.) more complicated or unclear; to make a mess of (something).

   “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.”

7. (figuratively, transitive)To make (something) impure; to contaminate.
8. (figuratively, obsolete, transitive)To cause or permit (someone or something) to become stuck in mud; to mire.

   “[…] I am novv ſir muddied in fortunes mood, and ſmell ſomevvhat ſtrong of her ſtrong diſpleaſure.”

9. (also, figuratively, intransitive)Sometimes followed by up: to become covered or splashed with mud; to become dirty or soiled.
10. (intransitive)Of water or some other liquid: to become cloudy or turbid.

    “Malt before hops, the world over, or the beer muddies.”

11. (figuratively, intransitive)To become contaminated or impure.

noun

1. (Australia, New-South-Wales, informal)The edible mud crab or mangrove crab (Scylla serrata).