Muddling

1 definition found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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.]
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              He did ill to muddle the water.       --L'Estrange.


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     2. To cloud or stupefy; to render stupid with liquor; to
        intoxicate partially.
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              Epicurus seems to have had brains so muddled and
              confounded, that he scarce ever kept in the right
              way.                                  --Bentley.
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              Often drunk, always muddled.          --Arbuthnot.
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     3. To waste or misuse, as one does who is stupid or
        intoxicated. [R.]
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              They muddle it [money] away without method or
              object, and without having anything to show for it.
                                                    --Hazlitt.
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     4. To mix confusedly; to confuse; to make a mess of; as, to
        muddle matters; also, to perplex; to mystify. --F. W.
        Newman.
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