different between muddle vs mud

English

Etymology

From Middle Dutch moddelen (“to make muddy”), from modde, mod (“mud”) (Modern Dutch modder). Compare German Kuddelmuddel.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?d?l/
• Rhymes: -?d?l

Verb

muddle (third-person singular simple present muddles, present participle muddling, simple past and past participle muddled)

1. To mix together, to mix up; to confuse.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of F. W. Newman to this entry?)

2. To mash slightly for use in a cocktail.

3. To dabble in mud.
   • c. 1721-1722, Jonathan Swift, The Progress of Marriage

     Young ducklings foster'd by a hen;
     But, when let out, they run and muddle

4. To make turbid or muddy.
5. To think and act in a confused, aimless way.
6. To cloud or stupefy; to render stupid with liquor; to intoxicate partially.
   • 1692, Richard Bentley, A Confutation of Atheism

     Their old master Epicurus seems to have had his brains so muddled and confounded with them, that he scarce ever kept in the right way.

   • 1712, John Arbuthnot, The History of John Bull

     often drunk, always muddled

7. To waste or misuse, as one does who is stupid or intoxicated.
   • 1821, William Hazlitt, On the Want of Money

     They muddle it [money] away without method or object, and without having anything to show for it.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

muddle (plural muddles)

1. A mixture; a confusion; a garble.

2. (cooking and cocktails) A mixture of crushed ingredients, as prepared with a muddler.

Translations

Derived terms

• muddle-headed

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: m?d, IPA^(key): /m?d/
• Rhymes: -?d

Etymology 1

From Middle English mud, mudde, mode, probably a borrowing from Middle Dutch mod, modde or Middle Low German mudde, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *mud-, *mudra- (“mud”), from Proto-Indo-European *m?-, *mew- (“moist”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Mudde (“mud”), Middle High German mot (“mud”), Swedish modd (“slush”). Compare also suffixed variants West Frisian modder (“mud”), Dutch modder (“mud”), German Low German Mudder (“mud”), German Moder (“moldiness, mildew, decay”).

Alternative etymology suggests the Proto-Germanic word is possibly borrowed from a Uralic language (compare e.g. Finnish muta (“mud”), Northern Sami mo??i (“mud”), from Proto-Uralic *mu?a).

Noun

mud (countable and uncountable, plural muds)

1. A mixture of water and soil or fine grained sediment.
2. A plaster-like mixture used to texture or smooth drywall.
3. (construction industry slang) Wet concrete as it is being mixed, delivered and poured.
4. (figuratively) Willfully abusive, even slanderous remarks or claims, notably between political opponents.

5. (slang) Money, dough, especially when proceeding from dirty business.
6. (gay sex, slang) Stool that is exposed as a result of anal sex.
7. (geology) A particle less than 62.5 microns in diameter, following the Wentworth scale
8. (slang, derogatory, ethnic slur) A black person.
9. Drilling fluid.
10. (slang) Coffee.

Derived terms

Related terms

• muddle

Translations

Verb

mud (third-person singular simple present muds, present participle mudding, simple past and past participle mudded)

1. (transitive) To make muddy or dirty; to apply mud to (something).
2. (transitive) To make turbid.
3. (intransitive) To go under the mud, as an eel does.

Translations

Etymology 2

From MUD.

Verb

mud (third-person singular simple present muds, present participle mudding, simple past and past participle mudded)

1. (intransitive, Internet) To participate in a MUD or multi-user dungeon.
   • 1997, Philip Agre, Douglas Schuler, Reinventing technology, rediscovering community (page 153)

     Wizards, in general, have a very different experience of mudding than other players. Because of their palpable and extensive extra powers over other players, and because of their special role in MUD society, they are frequently treated differently […]

References

Anagrams

• DMU, UMD, dum

Breton

Adjective

mud

1. mute

Dutch

Alternative forms

• mudde

Etymology

Ultimately from Latin modius (“bushel”).

Pronunciation

Noun

mud n (plural mudden, diminutive mudje n or muddeken n)

1. An old measure of volume, varying in content over time and regions; nowadays usually 1 hectoliter

2. A wooden container having such content; again used as measure for bulk wares sold in it, such as cereals
3. A land measure, presumably supposedly the area sown which that much seed
4. A small measure for liquids, about 1 deciliter

Derived terms

• mudderecht n
• mudszak m
• korenmud n

Volapük

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [mud]

Noun

mud

1. mouth

Declension