| / English Dictionary |
MUDDY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
Irregular inflected forms: muddied , muddier , muddiest
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Dirty and messy; covered with mud or muck
Example:
a mucky stable
Synonyms:
mucky; muddy
Classified under:
Similar:
dirty; soiled; unclean (soiled or likely to soil with dirt or grime)
Sense 2
Meaning:
(of liquids) clouded as with sediment
Example:
murky waters
Synonyms:
cloudy; mirky; muddy; murky; turbid
Classified under:
Similar:
opaque (not transmitting or reflecting light or radiant energy; impenetrable to sight)
Derivation:
muddiness (the quality of being cloudy)
Sense 3
Meaning:
(of color) discolored by impurities; not bright and clear
Example:
dirty-blonde hair
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
impure (combined with extraneous elements)
Derivation:
muddiness (the quality of being cloudy)
Sense 4
Meaning:
(of soil) soft and watery
Example:
swampy bayous
Synonyms:
boggy; marshy; miry; mucky; muddy; quaggy; sloppy; sloughy; soggy; squashy; swampy; waterlogged
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
wet (covered or soaked with a liquid such as water)
Derivation:
mud (water soaked soil; soft wet earth)
muddiness (the wetness of ground that is covered or soaked with water)
II. (verb)
Verb forms
Present simple: I / you / we / they muddy ... he / she / it muddies
Past simple: muddied
Past participle: muddied
-ing form: muddying
Sense 1
Meaning:
Make turbid
Example:
muddy the water
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "muddy" is one way to...):
alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s something
Sense 2
Meaning:
Cause to become muddy
Example:
These data would have muddied the prediction
Classified under:
Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting
Hypernyms (to "muddy" is one way to...):
blur; confuse; obnubilate; obscure (make unclear, indistinct, or blurred)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s something
Sense 3
Meaning:
Dirty with mud
Synonyms:
muddy; muddy up
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Hypernyms (to "muddy" is one way to...):
begrime; bemire; colly; dirty; grime; soil (make soiled, filthy, or dirty)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Context examples:
He soon came to the seashore; and the water was quite black and muddy, and a mighty whirlwind blew over the waves and rolled them about, but he went as near as he could to the water’s brink.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
What walks I took alone, down muddy lanes, in the bad winter weather, carrying that parlour, and Mr. and Miss Murdstone in it, everywhere: a monstrous load that I was obliged to bear, a daymare that there was no possibility of breaking in, a weight that brooded on my wits, and blunted them!
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
On Earth, worms and clams that live in the muddy sea beds require 1 mg per liter, bottom feeders such as crabs and oysters 3 mg per liter, and spawning migratory fish 6 mg per liter, all within 0.2 moles per cubic meter, 6.4 mg per liter.
(Simple animals could live in Martian brines, Wikinews)
The pool itself, muddy and discolored from the sluice boxes, effectually hid what it contained, and it contained John Thornton; for Buck followed his trace into the water, from which no trace led away.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
The occasional lamps gleamed on the expanse of muddy road and shining pavement.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The pursuit was renewed, till the water was again muddied.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
So saying, with downcast lids and a dignity which was somewhat marred by her bedraggled skirt, she swept off down the muddy track, leaving Alleyne standing staring ruefully after her.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I felt a little low in my mind as I sat up in my room after tea, and when the big, muddy, battered-looking bundle was brought to me, I just hugged it and pranced.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
I sought no shelter, therefore, but the sky; and toiling into Chatham,—which, in that night's aspect, is a mere dream of chalk, and drawbridges, and mastless ships in a muddy river, roofed like Noah's arks,—crept, at last, upon a sort of grass-grown battery overhanging a lane, where a sentry was walking to and fro.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
They sank lower and lower into the muddy abyss, back into the dregs of the raw beginnings of life, striving blindly and chemically, as atoms strive, as the star-dust of the heavens strives, colliding, recoiling, and colliding again and eternally again.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
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