muddle1 nounmuddle2 verb
muddlemud‧dle1 /ˈmʌdl/ noun 
1be in a muddle/get into a muddle British English a)to be confused: 
I’m in such a muddle, I’d completely forgotten you were coming today.muddle over/about My grandmother tends to get into a muddle over names. b)to be untidy or in a disorganized state: Sorry about the mess – we’re in a bit of a muddle at the moment. All my files have got into a muddle somehow.2[countable usually singular, uncountable] when there is confusion about something, and things are done wrong as a result: Our accountant finally managed to sort out the muddle.muddle over/about There was a bit of a muddle over our hotel reservations.muddle1 nounmuddle2 verb
muddlemuddle2 (also muddle up) verb [transitive] especially British English WORD ORIGINmuddle2
Origin:
1500-1600 Probably from early Dutch moddelen ‘to make muddy’, from Middle Dutch modde ‘mud’VERB TABLE
muddle
| Simple Form | ||
| Present | I, you, we, they | muddle |
| he, she, it | muddles | |
| Past | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | muddled |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have muddled |
| he, she, it | has muddled | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had muddled |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will muddle |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have muddled |
| Continuous Form | ||
| Present | I | am muddling |
| he, she, it | is muddling | |
| you, we, they | are muddling | |
| Past | I, he, she, it | was muddling |
| you, we, they | were muddling | |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have been muddling |
| he, she, it | has been muddling | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had been muddling |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will be muddling |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have been muddling |
EXAMPLES FROM THE CORPUS
- I found them to be muddled, frightened, weary.
- Passion starts to muddle my thinking.
- Several incidents are clever and revealing, others muddled.
- The lines between re-creations and reality are so muddled that some news programs have even used Hollywood films to illustrate news stories.
- They muddled around the fringes of true power, never quite brave enough or decisive enough to take the plunge.
- While children were very young it was possible to muddle through.
- You muddle through, reduced to selling your own ads to make a decent buck.
- You can see why it is easy to be muddled about carbohydrate.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY Spanish and Italian are very similar and I sometimes get them muddled up. Could you just repeat those figures – I’ve got a bit muddled up.COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB
1to put things in the wrong order: Spanish and Italian are very similar and I sometimes get them muddled up. Could you just repeat those figures – I’ve got a bit muddled up.· Analytical ability Does the candidate reason his or her way through the question or simply muddle along its surface?· The challenge is overcoming that nagging sense that old ideas are merely being reworked, that sense of muddling along.· Yet it is not clear if the Communist party has an alternative strategy or is just muddling along.
· They must muddle through in a fog of grumble and contempt.· You muddle through, reduced to selling your own ads to make a decent buck.· While children were very young it was possible to muddle through.· Like so many other students, he had muddled through without having to break a sweat.· When it comes to the detail of everyday life most of us just muddle through somehow, but Dennis was a Platonist.· She just has to muddle through.· My own feeling in 1981 was that we should try to achieve something better and that just muddling through was not enough.· Or I can stay, as I know I probably will. Muddle through.
· It's too bad of Blondel, he keeps getting them muddled up and out of order.· It is likely that a good many valuable stones were destroyed in this way because Pliny was muddling up hardness and toughness.
VERB· It's too bad of Blondel, he keeps getting them muddled up and out of order.
Someone’s muddled up all the papers on my desk. The government seems to have lost its way and muddled its priorities.2to confuse one person or thing with another, and make a mistake SYN mix up: The twins are so alike that it’s easy to muddle them up. Spanish and Italian are very similar and I sometimes get them muddled up.muddle something with something Be careful not to muddle the files you’ve already worked on with the others.3to confuse someone, especially so that they make a mistake: Don’t muddle her with all the extra details at the moment. Could you just repeat those figures – I’ve got a bit muddled up.muddle along/on phrasal verb to continue doing something without having any clear plan or purpose, or without having enough help or support: There’s no point in muddling on in the same old job forever. Many of the students complained that they were left to muddle along on their own.muddle through (something) phrasal verb especially British English to succeed in doing something with difficulty, or not in a very satisfactory way: There were some difficult questions but I managed to muddle through. The team managed to muddle through another season.