muddle

Meaning

Verb

1. To mix together, to mix up; to confuse.
2. To mash slightly for use in a cocktail.
3. To dabble in mud.
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.
7. To waste or misuse, as one does who is stupid or intoxicated.

Noun

1. A mixture; a confusion; a garble.
2. A mixture of crushed ingredients, as prepared with a muddler.

Noun

A servant's attendant; underservant.

Synonyms

mess

confusion

jumble

confuse

tangle

disorder

clutter

bewilder

chaos

puddle

muss

fuddle

obfuscate

mix-up

entanglement

mix up

shemozzle

pother

mess up

perplex

fix

pickle

kettle of fish

roil

disconcert

scrape

hole

🕳️

jam

shambles

smother

snafu

addle

mare’s nest

distract

mix

disarrange

disarrangement

welter

embarrass

mull

embroilment

disarray

complicate

pell-mell

perturb

promiscuity

ravel

razzmatazz

riddle

row

ruffle

ruin

shake

shake up

snarl

soil

spoil

stimulate

stir

stir up

stump

throw

turbidness

unrest

unsettle

waver

whirl

wreck

be distracted

cockup

dog’s breakfast

make a mess of

muddle up

snarl-up

steam up

topsyturvydom

box-up

lack of order

dog’s dinner

render confused

addlement

muck-up

abash

make unstable

affray

aggro

beat

becloud

bedim

befuddle

bemuse

bewilderment

boss

botch

bungle

churn

confound

dazzle

derange

despondency

discombobulate

discomfit

discompose

dislocation

disorderliness

disorganise

disorient

disturb

dullness

excite

falter

flounder

frustration

gallimaufry

hash

#️⃣

hassle

haste

kerfuffle

maze

mess-up

mixture

moil

muddy

mystify

obfuscation

obscure

Hyphenated as

mud‧dle

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈmʌdl̩/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: modelen

Cognate with Dutch: modder

Cognate with German: Kuddelmuddel

In summary

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.