muddle

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌdl̩/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌd(ə)l/

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• Rhymes: -ʌdəl
• Hyphenation: mud‧dle

From Middle English modelen (attested in present participle modeland (“wallowing”)), from Middle Dutch moddelen (“to make muddy”), from modde, mod (“mud”) (Modern Dutch modder). Compare German Kuddelmuddel.

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.

   Young children tend to muddle their words.

   • 1847, Francis William Newman, A History of the Hebrew Monarchy:

     I will not , to please hostile critics , muddle the argument by making it one of recondite learning , in which neither I nor my readers are strong . I try to lay before the reader reasons from which he can judge for himself

2. To mash slightly for use in a cocktail.

   He muddled the mint sprigs in the bottom of the glass.

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.
   • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC:

     He did ill to Muddle the Water.

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] (please specify the sermon), London: [Thomas Parkhurst; Henry Mortlock], published 1692–1693:

     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.

muddle (plural muddles)

1. A mixture; a confusion; a garble.

   The muddle of nervous speech he uttered did not have much meaning.

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

• muddle-headed

muddle (plural muddles)

1. (India, historical) A servant's attendant; underservant.
   • 1985, Lizzie Hessel; ‎Ann Brown; ‎Anne Rose, Lizzie: A Victorian Lady's Amazon Adventure, page 132:

     We bought a few rugs and odds and ends and our sitting room looks quite European; then we have a bedroom with 2 beds and a dressing room, also a corridor for the muddles and servants.

   • 2022, Carl Thompson; ‎Katrina O'Loughlin; ‎Éadaoin Agnew, Women's Travel Writings in India 1777–1854, page 201:

     I have an ayah (or lady's maid), and a tailor (for the ayahs cannot work); and A—84 has a boy: also two muddles—one to sweep my room, and another to bring water.

• Henry Yule; A[rthur] C[oke] Burnell (1903), “muddle”, in William Crooke, editor, Hobson-Jobson […] , London: John Murray, […].