mud
Americannoun
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wet, soft earth or earthy matter, as on the ground after rain, at the bottom of a pond, or along the banks of a river; mire.
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Informal. scandalous or malicious assertions or information.
The opposition threw a lot of mud at our candidate.
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Slang. brewed coffee, especially when strong or bitter.
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a mixture of chemicals and other substances pumped into a drilling rig chiefly as a lubricant for the bit and shaft.
verb (used with object)
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to cover, smear, or spatter with mud.
to mud the walls of a hut.
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to stir up the mud or sediment in.
waders mudding the clear water.
verb (used without object)
noun
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a fine-grained soft wet deposit that occurs on the ground after rain, at the bottom of ponds, lakes, etc
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informal slander or defamation
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informal not at all clear
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to disgrace or defame someone
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informal a humorous drinking toast
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informal someone is disgraced
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informal to slander; vilify
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of mud
1300–50; Middle English mudde, mode < Middle Low German mudde. Cf. mother 2
Explanation
Mud is very wet dirt. On rainy days, you might enjoy putting on your tall rubber boots and squishing around in the mud. When you mix soil with water, you get mud — a soft, almost sticky material. Mud results from a damp environment or a recent rain. There's also the mud that masons or bricklayers use to stick stones together — it resembles mud, though it's actually mortar or plaster, and to use it when building is to mud. The word mud also showed up in 1920s as slang" meaning "bad coffee," and if your "name is mud," you've got a bad reputation.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Mud has filled her house on Oriole Road to the point where she has to crawl just to squeeze into it.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 26, 2025
The Go-Go’s Kathy Valentine shows up as a random hippie girl looking for Dennis Hopper’s house at the start of “Freakout at the Mud Palace.”
From Salon • Oct. 7, 2025
Who could forget 1997 - known as the Year of the Mud.
From BBC • Jun. 16, 2025
Mud and tree branches and food from local grocery stores flowed into the streets.
From Slate • Oct. 1, 2024
But Pong wondered about Yai and Yord, the only other people at the Mud House who had access to Ampai’s office.
From "A Wish in the Dark" by Christina Soontornvat
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
