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Glite Dictionary
🥾 Covered with mud 🤔 To confuse 🎨 Dull or unclear 💧 To make dirty
to muddy

to muddy

27 4.4
Make something less clear or more confusing
  • verb
  • /ˈmʌdi/
: enturbiar
  • I just think that using the word "stealing" when talking about IP muddies up the discussion.
  • muddy the waters
  • further muddy the waters
  • greatly muddy the waters

It just doesn't end it just it's getting the waters are getting muddied, right?

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Examples

  • All the speculation is just muddying the waters.

    Bombshell (2016)

  • Unfortunately, the shining clarity of this excellent advice has a way of becoming muddied in action.

    Academic text (2008)

  • Just enough to muddy the waters.

    High School (2010)

  • And we can talk about how research can be muddied for days, right?

  • So that that just further muddies the water and makes the process itself less transparent.

  • The lack of uniformity, at first glance, seems to continue to muddy the waters.

    Academic text (2007)

  • The confusion is exacerbated by the industry itself, which muddies the water by blaming the victim.

    Academic text (2004)

  • Your Honor, Mr. Haller is just muddying the waters with outrageous statements.

    The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)

  • Far from clarifying the debate, Kristol and Kagan will have only muddied the waters.

    Academic text (1996)

  • The misleading information only served to muddy the issue further.

Synonyms

to confuse
vsto muddy
152 1.9

Make someone unable to think clearly or make something hard to understand

is about reducing clarity in meaning rather than affecting thought directly
to blur
vsto muddy
90 3.6

To make something hard to see or understand

focuses on lowering clarity of meaning rather than only visual blurring
to mix up
vsto muddy
  • Informal
83 2.7

To make people confused and things messy

means making things less clear rather than only rearranging items
to muddle
vsto muddy
24 4.8

Mix things up so they are unclear

is about making something less clear rather than only disorganizing
to muddy the waters
vsto muddy
  • Informal
11 7.2

Make a topic more confusing by adding unclear details

is the simple action of making things less clear without focus on issues
to fuzz
vsto muddy
3 5.6

To make an image or sound unclear

has a broader sense of making meaning less clear not only appearance or sound
to muddy up
vsto muddy
  • Informal
3 6.7

To make an idea or situation unclear and confusing

is the base verb used more generally not the phrasal form
to nebulize
vsto muddy
  • US
8.2

To make an idea or statement unclear

is the common simple action of making things less clear and hard to follow
to muzz
vsto muddy
9.9

To make thoughts or words unclear, often from noise and tiredness

is focused on general loss of clarity rather than only mental disturbance
to misarticulate
vsto muddy
8.6

To express ideas unclearly so other people cannot understand them

covers general making less clear not only unclear speaking or writing

Antonyms

to clarify
255 3.3

To make something clear so others can understand it

to simplify
104 2.5

Make something easier to understand or use

Idioms

knee-deep in the Big Muddy
  • Informal
9.9

Deeply stuck in a difficult situation that is hard to leave

Phrasal Verbs

to muddy the waters
  • Informal
11 7.2

Make a topic more confusing by adding unclear details

to muddy up
  • Informal
3 6.7

To make an idea or situation unclear and confusing

to muddy up
1 3.5

To make something dirty with wet dirt, for example shoes or floors

How Clear

to obfuscate
  • Formal
17 9.1
to obscure
84 7.0
to muddy
27 4.4
to blur
90 3.6

Surface Forms

muddy infinitive
muddied past
muddied past participle
muddying present participle
muddies third person singular

Morphology

muddy = mud (transparent) = mud + y

The figurative sense 'make less clear or more confusing' is a standard metaphorical extension of the literal 'mud' + '-y' formation.

Etymology

Muddy as a verb started with the idea of making things physically dirty from mud + -y. A helpful way to remember the figurative use is to think of ideas turned 'like mud' that hide details, so to muddy an explanation is to make it confusing or unclear.