MUDDLING

Verb

muddling

present participle of muddle

Noun

muddling (plural muddlings)

The act of one who muddles; confusion; disorderly progress.

Source: Wiktionary

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MUDDLE

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

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