muck
- moist farmyard dung, decaying vegetable matter, etc.; manure.
- a highly organic, dark or black soil, less than 50 percent combustible, often used as a manure.
- mire; mud.
- filth, dirt, or slime.
- defamatory or sullying remarks.
- a state of chaos or confusion: to make a muck of things.
- Chiefly British Informal. something of no value; trash.
- (especially in mining) earth, rock, or other useless matter to be removed in order to get out the mineral or other substances sought.
- to manure.
- to make dirty; soil.
- to remove muck from (sometimes followed by out).
- Informal.
- to ruin; bungle (often followed by up).
- to put into a state of complete confusion (often followed by up).
- muck about/around, Informal. to idle; waste time; loiter.
Origin of muck
Related Words for muck
manure, mud, trash, slime, goo, dirt, sludge, gunk, mire, waste, dung, refuse, filth, garbage, ooze, sewage, gookExamples from the Web for muck
Contemporary Examples of muck
After a long day of him wading and me watching him in the muck, cocktails were required.
How nice of Bob Dylan to demonstrate that over a lifetime of work, even perfection sometime runs amok into a muck.
Italy, in the muck of an economic crisis, simply cannot afford to help everyone who lands on the shores.
The cops, of course, always attend Hempfest, not to muck up the vibe but to make sure no big, important laws are being flouted.
I had discreetly sloshed the muck in my Styrofoam cup onto the grass.
Historical Examples of muck
"Heave that muck overboard," he ordered some of those who stood idling in the waist.
Captain BloodRafael Sabatini
Now he was not only hopelessly down in the muck of poverty, but hopelessly dishonored.
Garrison's FinishW. B. M. Ferguson
Nae muck le o' that, but a douce, good-humored lassie for a' that.
The Knight Of Gwynne, Vol. I (of II)Charles James Lever
They are too pure to have a market value; they contain no muck.
Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil DisobedienceHenry David Thoreau
Muck or pond dirt could be used in the same way, in place of manure.
GuanoSolon Robinson
muck
- to spread manure upon (fields, gardens, etc)
- to soil or pollute
- (often foll by out) to clear muck from
Word Origin for muck
Word Origin and History for muck
mid-13c., "cow dung and vegetable matter spread as manure," from a Scandinavian source, cf. Old Norse myki, mykr "cow dung," Danish møg, from Proto-Germanic *muk-, *meuk- "soft." Meaning "unclean matter generally" is from c.1300. Muck-sweat first attested 1690s.
late 14c., "to dig in the ground," also "to remove manure," early 15c., "to spread manure, cover with muck," from muck (n.). Meaning "to make dirty" is from 1832; in the figurative sense, "to make a mess of," it is from 1886; to muck about "mess around" is from 1856. Related: Mucked; mucking.