MUDDLE

fix, hole, jam, mess, muddle, pickle, kettle of fish

(noun) informal terms for a difficult situation; “he got into a terrible fix”; “he made a muddle of his marriage”

clutter, jumble, muddle, fuddle, mare's nest, welter, smother

(noun) a confused multitude of things

addle, muddle, puddle

(verb) mix up or confuse; “He muddled the issues”

muddle, puddle

(verb) make into a puddle; “puddled mire”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Verb

muddle (third-person singular simple present muddles, present participle muddling, simple past and past participle muddled)

To mix together, to mix up; to confuse.

To mash slightly for use in a cocktail.

To dabble in mud.

To make turbid or muddy.

To think and act in a confused, aimless way.

To cloud or stupefy; to render stupid with liquor; to intoxicate partially.

To waste or misuse, as one does who is stupid or intoxicated.

Noun

muddle (plural muddles)

A mixture; a confusion; a garble.

(cooking and cocktails) A mixture of crushed ingredients, as prepared with a muddler.

Source: Wiktionary

Mud"dle, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Muddled; p. pr. & vb. n. Muddling.] Etym: [From Mud.]

1. To make turbid, or muddy, as water. [Obs.] He did ill to muddle the water. L'Estrange.

2. To cloud or stupefy; to render stupid with liquor; to intoxicate partially. Epicurus seems to have had brains so muddled and confounded, that he scarce ever kept in the right way. Bentley. Often drunk, always muddled. Arbuthnot.

3. To waste or misuse, as one does who is stupid or intoxicated. [R.] They muddle it [money] away without method or object, and without having anything to show for it. Hazlitt.

4. To mix confusedly; to confuse; to make a mess of; as, to muddle matters; also, to perplex; to mystify. F. W. Newman.

Mud"dle, v. i.

1. To dabble in mud. [Obs.] Swift.

2. To think and act in a confused, aimless way.

Mud"dle, n.

Definition: A state of being turbid or confused; hence, intellectual cloudiness or dullness. We both grub on in a muddle. Dickens.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition