muddle

Definitions

1. 1.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.
2. 2.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.
3. 3.To mix confusedly; to confuse; to make a mess of; as, to muddle matters; also, to perplex; to mystify. F. W. Newman.
4. 4.To dabble in mud. [Obs.] Swift.
5. 5.To think and act in a confused, aimless way.
6. 6.A state of being turbid or confused; hence, intellectual cloudiness or dullness. We both grub on in a muddle. Dickens.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

Synonyms

Related questions

• What does "muddle" mean?
• What is another word for "muddle"?

Reverse-dictionary questions

Definition-first questions whose answer is muddle.

• What is 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 called?
• What is to mix confusedly; to confuse; to make a mess of; as, to muddle matters; also, to perplex; to mystify. F. W. Newman called?
• What is to think and act in a confused, aimless way called?
• What is a state of being turbid or confused; hence, intellectual cloudiness or dullness. We both grub on in a muddle. Dickens called?