muddle
from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
muddle
n 1: a confused multitude of things [syn: {clutter}, {jumble},
{muddle}, {fuddle}, {mare's nest}, {welter}, {smother}]
2: informal terms for a difficult situation; "he got into a
terrible fix"; "he made a muddle of his marriage" [syn:
{fix}, {hole}, {jam}, {mess}, {muddle}, {pickle}, {kettle of
fish}]
v 1: make into a puddle; "puddled mire" [syn: {muddle},
{puddle}]
2: mix up or confuse; "He muddled the issues" [syn: {addle},
{muddle}, {puddle}]
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Muddle \Mud"dle\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Muddled}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Muddling}.] [From {Mud}.]
1. To make turbid, or muddy, as water. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
He did ill to muddle the water. --L'Estrange.
[1913 Webster]
2. To cloud or stupefy; to render stupid with liquor; to
intoxicate partially.
[1913 Webster]
Epicurus seems to have had brains so muddled and
confounded, that he scarce ever kept in the right
way. --Bentley.
[1913 Webster]
Often drunk, always muddled. --Arbuthnot.
[1913 Webster]
3. To waste or misuse, as one does who is stupid or
intoxicated. [R.]
[1913 Webster]
They muddle it [money] away without method or
object, and without having anything to show for it.
--Hazlitt.
[1913 Webster]
4. To mix confusedly; to confuse; to make a mess of; as, to
muddle matters; also, to perplex; to mystify. --F. W.
Newman.
[1913 Webster]
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
205 Moby Thesaurus words for "muddle":
addle, addle the wits, amaze, anarchy, ataxia, baffle, ball up,
bamboozle, be all thumbs, beat, becloud, bedazzle, befog, befuddle,
befuddlement, bemuse, bewilder, bewilderment, blunder,
blunder away, blunder into, blunder on, blunder upon, blur,
blur distinctions, boggle, bollix, bollix up, botch, botchery,
bother, botheration, buffalo, bug, bumble, bungle, butcher, chaos,
cloud, clutter, commit a gaffe, complicate, confound, confuse,
confusion, contrive, cope, daze, dazzle, deform, disarrange,
disarray, disaster, discombobulate, discombobulation, discomfit,
discomfiture, discompose, discomposure, disconcert, disconcertion,
dishevel, disorder, disorganization, disorganize, disorient,
disorientation, distort, distract, disturb, disturbance, embarrass,
embarrassment, embrangle, entangle, fabulous formless darkness,
faux pas, fiasco, floor, flounder, flummox, flunk, flurry, fluster,
flutter, fog, fog up, foozle, foul up, foul-up, frenzy, fuddle,
fuddlement, fumble, fuss, fuzz, garble, get, get along, get by,
hash, hassle, haze, huddle, implicate, involve, jumble,
jumble together, jungle, keep in suspense, knock galley-west, knot,
license, lick, limp, litter, louse up, lumber, make do, make it,
make uncertain, mar, maze, mess, mess up, miscue, mishmash,
mismanage, misrule, mist, mix, mix up, mix-up, moider, morass,
muck, muck up, mud, muddle through, muddlement, muddy, muff, mull,
murder, murmur, muss, muss up, mutter, mystify, nonplus, obfuscate,
obscure, overlook distinctions, perplex, perplexity, perturb,
perturbation, pi, play havoc with, play hob with, pother, pucker,
put out, puzzle, raise hell, ramify, rattle, ravel, riffle, rile,
ruffle, rummage, scramble, scrape along, scrape through, screw up,
screw-up, shambles, shuffle, slip, snafu, snarl, snarl up, spoil,
stew, stick, stumble, stump, swallow, sweat, swivet, tangle, throw,
throw into confusion, throw off, tizzy, topsy-turviness, trip,
tumble, unform, unsettle, unsettlement, unshape, upset, washout
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