different between perplexed vs muddle

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) enPR: p?rpl?kst?, IPA^(key): /p??pl?kst/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: p?pl?kst?, IPA^(key): /p??pl?kst/
• Rhymes: -?kst
• Hyphenation: per?plexed

Adjective

perplexed (comparative more perplexed, superlative most perplexed)

1. Confused or puzzled.
2. Bewildered.

Translations

Verb

perplexed

1. simple past tense and past participle of perplex

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