muddy
Americanadjective
-
muddier,
comparative
-
muddiest
superlative
-
abounding in or covered with mud.
-
not clear or pure.
muddy colors.
-
cloudy with sediment.
muddy coffee.
-
dull, as the complexion.
-
not clear mentally.
-
obscure or vague, as thought, expression, or literary style.
-
Horse Racing. denoting the condition of a track after a heavy, continuous rainfall has ceased and been completely absorbed into the surface, leaving it the consistency of thick mud.
verb (used with object)
-
muddies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
muddied,
past participle, past
-
muddying
present participle
-
to make muddy; soil with mud.
-
to make turbid.
-
to cause to be confused or obscure.
verb (used without object)
-
muddies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
muddied,
past participle, past
-
muddying
present participle
adjective
-
covered or filled with mud
-
not clear or bright
muddy colours
-
cloudy
a muddy liquid
-
(esp of thoughts) confused or vague
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
muddysimple
-
muddiessimple
-
have muddiedperfect
-
has muddiedperfect
-
am muddyingprogressive
-
are muddyingprogressive
-
is muddyingprogressive
-
have been muddyingperfect progressive
-
has been muddyingperfect progressive
Past
-
muddiedsimple
-
had muddiedperfect
-
was muddyingprogressive
-
were muddyingprogressive
-
had been muddyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of muddy
First recorded in 1375–1425, muddy is from the late Middle English word muddi. See mud, -y 1
Explanation
Muddy is a verb that means to make dirty with mud. You might muddy up your mom's white shag rug if you don't take off your dirty hiking boots before you walk inside. The meaning of muddy is easy to remember: just look at the root word mud and think about smearing it on something. Muddy is also an adjective that describes something that's dirty and messy. When you're a child, you often end up looking muddy after playing outside, because you've been splashing in puddles and playing in the leaves. Muddy can also describe soil that's waterlogged, like your vegetable garden after a big rainstorm.
Vocabulary lists containing muddy
Can You Dig It? Words for Dirt and Soil
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Common Five-letter Words for Wordle, List 3
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Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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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.
See Examples For:
It looked muddy, which might indicate real trouble — erosion in the foundation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
You “absolutely need a mudroom,” in the Northeast, since people walk in with snow and rain on their boots and need a place to drop off “sporty, sweaty, muddy, rainy, snowy” stuff.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 1, 2026
As the pre-war avant-garde’s celebration of image-breaking, violent spectacle and weird hybridizing became muddy reality in the field, the amateurs outstripped the professionals.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
Fast-flowing muddy water burst the banks of 40 rivers and waterways in Guangxi, damaging nearly 13,000 acres of agricultural land, state media reported.
From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026
This pond was freshwater, but most of the creeks and rivers in the Sunderbans were salty and muddy.
From "Tiger Boy" by Mitali Perkins
At that point, the legal questions get even muddier.
From Slate ● Jul. 23, 2025
A second, the helpers, is a muddier designation.
From Salon ● May 9, 2025
In a statement issued through Cumbria Police, Mr and Mrs Cartmell said "Jay loved being outdoors" and "the muddier he could get the better".
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2024
Yet as the smoke cleared and the fallout from the launch became apparent, the implications—for Starship itself and SpaceX’s southern Texas Starbase launch site—grew muddier.
From Scientific American ● May 4, 2023
I tore my jeans on barbed wire and got muddier still.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
This is likely due to the high silt content of the riverbed; the Yellow River—the muddiest in the world—is named for the heavy loads of silt it carries.
From Science Magazine ● Jun. 10, 2022
“It’s a high road and, as all the muddiest are, both unassailable pure and also solidly earthed.”
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 27, 2021
On the second lap, I tripped and fell in a woodsy area coating myself with the muddiest mud.
From Golf Digest ● Sep. 11, 2019
Freedman's people are the ones with the muddiest shoes and wettest clothes, the people with the most to gain and most to lose.
From Time ● Oct. 26, 2017
The mud was caused by heavy snowfall overnight that completely melted during the day, and it was the wettest and muddiest rasputitsa in living memory.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
There's another reason that muddies the waters and helps explain why cutting carbon became the prime focus – it was investable.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
“Old inventory muddies the income statement. Cohort performance tells you that this new Opendoor 2.0 machine works.”
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 20, 2026
It’s a simple story, but “Scarlet,” an anime feature from Japan, both complicates and muddies the quest.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 11, 2025
"Misuse of the terminology in the media muddies the waters."
From Salon ● May 20, 2024
It is raining mightily; strong, straight, earnest rain, that harshly lashes the meek earth, that sends angry runlets down the gravel walks, that muddies the gold goblets of the closed crocuses.
From Nancy by Rhoda Broughton
The effects of the climate cycle on wildfires are muddied by countless other weather and ecological factors.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
In May, India's civil aviation minister muddied the waters when he told reporters the investigation into the crash was into its "last stage", and that the final report would "mostly... come after a month".
From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026
This is where it starts to get muddied.
From Slate ● Apr. 30, 2026
For other companies, the uncertainty around when the war ends and what the Middle East looks like afterward has muddied forecasts.
From Barron's ● Apr. 21, 2026
The effect was galvanizing: his muddied half-chewed tail stirred and he raised his shoulders, then his forelegs, with a convulsive effort, like an old work horse getting up after a fall.
From "The Incredible Journey" by Sheila Burnford
But recent regulatory changes are muddying this bullish narrative.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
Musk's interest in buying the company risks muddying the waters when it comes to this trial, says Columbia Law School professor Dorothy Lund.
From BBC ● Apr. 28, 2026
Yet the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, personal consumption expenditures, rose 0.4% in December from the prior month and 3% from a year earlier, muddying the case for rate cuts.
From Barron's ● Feb. 20, 2026
It allows both parties to get the best price they believe they can afford or believe is fair without muddying the waters with personal obligations and emotional leverage.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 19, 2026
The storm didn’t help the dirt path much, muddying it up within minutes as the rain came down harder.
From "Half Upon a Time" by James Riley
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.
