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muck

American  
[muhk] / mʌk /

noun

  1. moist farmyard dung, decaying vegetable matter, etc.; manure.

  2. a highly organic, dark or black soil, less than 50 percent combustible, often used as a manure.

  3. mire; mud.

  4. filth, dirt, or slime.

  5. defamatory or sullying remarks.

  6. a state of chaos or confusion.

    to make a muck of things.

  7. Chiefly British Informal. something of no value; trash.

  8. (especially in mining) earth, rock, or other useless matter to be removed in order to get out the mineral or other substances sought.

verb (used with object)

  1. to manure.

  2. to make dirty; soil.

  3. to remove muck from (sometimes followed byout ).

  4. Informal.

    1. to ruin; bungle (often followed byup ).

    2. to put into a state of complete confusion (often followed byup ).

verb phrase

  1. muck about / around to idle; waste time; loiter.

muck British  
/ mʌk /

noun

  1. farmyard dung or decaying vegetable matter

  2. Also called: muck soil.  an organic soil rich in humus and used as a fertilizer

  3. dirt or filth

  4. earth, rock material, etc, removed during mining excavations

  5. slang rubbish

  6. See Lord Muck Lady Muck

  7. slang to ruin or spoil

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. to spread manure upon (fields, gardens, etc)

  2. to soil or pollute

  3. (often foll by out) to clear muck from

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of muck

1200–50; Middle English muc, muk < Old Norse myki cow dung

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.

How many homes could be heated by cow muck?

From BBC

It's a very good copy, which has not been mucked about.

From BBC

Somewhere in the muck of forgettable games against the likes of Boise State and Boston College and Navy, they needed a marquee win.

From Los Angeles Times

Michael Enea, a political blogger and local campaigner for the Conservative party, said one phone box in Newport was "covered in dirt, muck and moss", describing it as "absolutely apalling".

From BBC

Football management is a precarious job, once described to me by a very experienced and knowledgeable manager as like being permanently in "muck".

From BBC

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.