muddy
/ˈmʌdi
/adjective (muddier, muddiest)
1Covered in or full of mud: they changed their muddy boots...
- It was a rainy day in London; the muddy streets were covered with sheets of icy water when Emma and her companions arrived.
- As well as the debris scattered around the worktops, muddy footprints covered the whole kitchen.
- The ground was very muddy, but eventually they planted their crops and their animals began to reproduce.
Synonyms
mud-caked, mud-spattered, muddied, dirty, filthy, mucky, grubby, grimy, soiled, begrimed
1.1Not bright or clear; dirty-looking: the original colours were blurred into muddy pink and yellow...
- I think the blue wash that old ladies use looks bright white to them, whereas bright white looks like a dingy, muddy yellow.
- She is wearing gold loafers that seem oddly bright on the muddy blue carpet.
- The muddy yellows and dark reds are unfortunate hallmarks of DLP projectors.
Synonyms
dingy, dirty, drab, dull, sludgy, washed out, flat
1.2(Of a sound, especially in music) not clearly defined: an awful muddy sound that renders his vocals incoherent...
- To my ears, it simply sounds like grainy, muddy ambient music and experiments in granular synthesis.
- Too often the fugue sounds either muddy or disjointed in performance.
- Some people may feel it sounds a bit muddy but my ear soon adjusts to that phenomenon and it doesn't depreciate my appreciation of this recording a whit.
1.3Confused, vague, or illogical: some sentences are so muddy that their meaning can only be guessed...
- There were no grey areas, no muddy patches of confusion to catch you off guard.
- Hence, the nature of the audience using the Internet quickly becomes muddy.
- But as the mystery of the film deepens even this vision of marital concord becomes muddy.
Synonyms
incoherent, confused, muddled, jumbled, woolly, vague, fuzzy
verb (muddies, muddying, muddied) [with object]
1Cover or fill (something) with mud: the linoleum flooring was muddied...
- Here they provide pull-on boot covers, so you don't muddy the floor or have to unlace; a very good idea.
- It's a good idea to mulch each plant with an inch or so of aquarium gravel to keep soil from muddying the water.
- We snake on north, eventually forking off the perfect track for a short section that might muddy your boots after rain.
Synonyms
make muddy, cake with mud/dirt, dirty, soil, begrime, grime, mire, spatter, bespatter
literary smirch, besmirch, bemire
1.1Make (something) hard or harder to understand: the first year’s results muddy rather than clarify the situation...
- I mean, rather than muddy your message along the way, is it better to go with what you know and then make corrections at a later date?
- Depending on your perspective, he either clarified or muddied the matter.
- Sometimes court battles muddy an issue more than clarifying it.
Synonyms
make unclear, obscure, confuse, obfuscate, blur, cloud, befog, mix up
Phrases
muddy the waters
Derivatives
muddily
/ adverb ...- We've seen some rather awesome assaults on castles in movies recently, so a muddily directed sequence with lots of arrows being shot at some cheap-looking castle walls doesn't really cut it.
- It's stylish and superficially entertaining, but his megalomaniac motives for his crimes are at best muddily explained.
- It's a film that is created around its set pieces, which are linked muddily together.
muddiness
/ noun ...- This ‘digitally remastered’ film hasn't done away with the occasional bits of muddiness, feedback, and generally uneven mixing we've come to know, but ain't that live music?
- It has high dynamic power and a low impedance driver so it sounds full, without any muddiness.
- The only unknown in this album is why the normally crisp vocals from lead man Chris Martin have been mixed low on certain tracks, resulting in some muddiness.