muddle Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a confused multitude of things
    welter; smother; clutter; mare's nest; fuddle; jumble.
  2. noun informal terms for a difficult situation
    kettle of fish; mess; fix; jam; hole; pickle.
    • he got into a terrible fix
    • he made a muddle of his marriage
  3. verb make into a puddle
    puddle.
    • puddled mire
  4. verb mix up or confuse
    puddle; addle.
    • He muddled the issues

WordNet

Mud"dle transitive verb
Etymology
From Mud.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Muddled ; present participle & verbal noun Muddling
Definitions
  1. To make turbid, or muddy, as water. Obs.
    He did ill to muddle the water. L'Estrange.
  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. Bentley.
    Often drunk, always muddled. Arbuthnot.
  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. Hazlitt.
  4. To mix confusedly; to confuse; to make a mess of; as, to muddle matters; also, to perplex; to mystify. F. W. Newman.
Mud"dle intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To dabble in mud. Obs. Swift.
  2. To think and act in a confused, aimless way.
Mud"dle noun
Definitions
  1. A state of being turbid or confused; hence, intellectual cloudiness or dullness.
    We both grub on in a muddle. Dickens.

Webster 1913