mud

Meaning

Noun

1. A mixture of water and soil or fine grained sediment.
2. A plaster-like mixture used to texture or smooth drywall.
3. Wet concrete as it is being mixed, delivered and poured.
4. Willfully abusive, even slanderous remarks or claims, notably between political opponents.
5. (slang) Money, dough, especially when proceeding from dirty business.
6. (slang) Stool that is exposed as a result of anal sex.
7. A particle less than 62.5 microns in diameter, following the Wentworth scale
8. (slang) A black person.
9. Drilling fluid.
10. (slang) Coffee.
11. (slang) Opium.
12. (slang) Heroin.

Verb

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

Verb

To participate in a MUD or multi-user dungeon.

Pronounced as (IPA)

/mʌd/

Etymology

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”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *mū-, *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”), English mother (“vinegar-forming sediment in alcohol”), Danish mudder (“mud”).
Alternative etymology suggests the Proto-Germanic word is possibly borrowed from a Uralic language (compare e.g. Finnish muta (“mud”), Northern Sami mođđi (“mud”), from Proto-Uralic *muďa).