Meaning & use
muddy
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Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Covered with mud, or full of soft wet earth, so that it is dirty or hard to walk through.
Grammar: Goes before a noun or after be: muddy boots, the path is muddy.
Patterns
- muddy with something
- get muddy
The children came home with muddy knees after the football match.
After three days of rain, the muddy track was almost impassable.
Please leave your muddy boots by the door.
adjectivecomparablefigurative
Dull, cloudy or dirty-looking, as a color, liquid or sound that lacks clarity or brightness.
Grammar: Describes colors, water, sound or photos: muddy water, a muddy sound.
Patterns
- a muddy color
- muddy water
The river ran muddy and brown after the storm.
The painting's colors looked muddy because the artist had mixed too many together.
The cheap speakers gave the music a muddy sound with little detail in the bass.
verbtransitivefigurative
To make something unclear, confused or less certain, especially a topic or situation that was straightforward.
Grammar: Takes an object, usually in muddy the waters or muddy the issue.
Patterns
- muddy the waters
- muddy the issue
His last-minute comments only muddied the waters.
Adding extra rules will muddy the issue rather than fix it.
New evidence has muddied a case that once seemed simple.
Word forms
| comparative | muddier |
|---|---|
| superlative | muddiest |
| third person singular | muddies |
| past tense | muddied |
| past participle | muddied |
| -ing form | muddying |
Common combinations
- muddy boots
- He left his muddy boots on the porch.
- muddy field
- The festival turned the grass into a muddy field.
- muddy the waters
- Her comments muddied the waters during the debate.
- muddy puddle
- The toddler jumped into every muddy puddle on the way home.
- muddy footprints
- Muddy footprints led across the kitchen floor.
- muddy sound
- The recording had a muddy sound.
Synonyms and how they differ
- boggy
- Boggy describes ground that is soggy and soft over a wide area, whereas muddy only says there is mud on or in something.
- dirty
- Dirty is far more general, since anything can be dirty without being covered in wet earth like something muddy.
- murky
- Murky is used for water, light or situations that are dark or unclear, and it does not suggest mud on a surface.
- cloud
- Cloud as a verb is a close match for figurative use, but it often refers to judgment or vision, whereas muddy fits topics and issues.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: muddy or muddle?
muddy vs muddle
Muddle means to confuse or mix things up, as in muddle the names. Muddy as a verb is narrower and usually appears in muddy the waters.
Practice
The politician's long, vague answer only ___ the waters instead of explaining what had happened.
Choose one answer.
Muddy the waters is a fixed expression meaning to make a situation less clear. Muddled fits other phrases, such as muddled thinking, but does not form this idiom.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “muddy”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.