to muddy the waters
7
7.2
- phrasal verb
- Informal
:
complicar
- Her unclear explanation served to muddy the waters instead of clarifying the issue.
- further muddying the waters
So there was some things being, you know, put out there that muddied the water.
- So there was some things being, you know, put out there that muddied the water.
- And this is what really muddies the water because people are using it to mean lots of things.
- And they there's a lot of energy that goes into muddying the waters.
- Like it is nothing to scoff at, but the last, the last few years I think have muddied the waters in terms of expectations.
- So if this generous person is a significant narcissistic person in your life, it muddies the waters like nothing else.
- And it's easy to inject like a little bit of like false narrative into something that's real too, to just muddy the water.
- It completely muddies the waters to say, should females be allowed to compete against females in girls sports?
- All right, you can muddy the water, so to speak, and make it difficult to maintain and sustain that relationship successfully.
- Drain the swamp, then muddy the waters.
- And when you get in with these pervert gay parties, you muddy the waters.
Examples
-
The uncertainty of who will be in the White House come November also muddies the waters.
Blog text (2) -
The lack of uniformity, at first glance, seems to continue to muddy the waters.
Academic text (2007) -
And this is what really muddies the water because people are using it to mean lots of things.
-
"But this is going to muddy the water."
Fiction book (2002) -
So that that just further muddies the water and makes the process itself less transparent.
-
All the speculation is just muddying the waters.
-
Of course, the purpose of this new leak may be to muddy the waters.
Blog text (15) -
In both cases, he has moved to muddy the waters and avoid holding responsible public servants accountable.
Blog text (29) -
He didn't want to muddy the waters of an otherwise clean story.
-
Your Honor, Mr. Haller is just muddying the waters with outrageous statements.
Synonyms
266
1.9
Make someone unable to think clearly or make something hard to understand
65
2.7
To make people confused and things messy
33
4.8
Mix things up so they are unclear
17
9.1
To make facts or information unclear on purpose
6
7.1
To make something more confused or tangled
1
7.8
Make things tangled or blocked so progress slows
To make a problem more confusing instead of clearer
To make an idea or situation unclear and confusing
To make a situation or story more confusing
Antonyms
How Confusing
- Formal
17
9.1
56
4.4
- Informal
7
7.2
266
1.9
101
4.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
muddy + the + waters
The meaning 'to make a situation more confusing' is directly derivable from combining 'muddy' (to make unclear or dirty) with 'waters' (literally water, metaphorically a situation), so a learner knowing both words can infer the figurative sense. This water-as-situation metaphor is common cross-linguistically and follows an obvious image (making clear water muddy), making the expression immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner.
Etymology
The idiom muddy the waters comes from the image of making clear waters muddy by stirring up dirt. That's why it means 'to make a situation more confusing'.