muddy the waters

1. Confuse the issue, as in Bringing up one irrelevant fact after another, he succeeded in muddying the waters. This metaphoric expression, alluding to making a pond or stream turbid by stirring up mud from the bottom, was first recorded in 1837.

Related Words

• belie 
• blind 
• block out 
• blur 
• camouflage 
• cloud 
• confuse 
• cover 
• darken 
• dim 
• disguise 
• eclipse 
• mask 
• misrepresent 
• muddy 
• overshadow 
• shroud 
• veil