muddy the waters
IdiomsExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Some have tried to muddy the waters on the events of that day, but the record is clear.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 24, 2026
To muddy the waters further, another of Mark McDonald's panel of experts has said that in fact there was post-mortem evidence of air embolism in the babies.
From BBC • Aug. 11, 2025
“The defense is going to muddy the waters on whether that gun was somehow defective and maybe fired on its own or fired with a slight depress of the trigger.”
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 7, 2024
All of this tends to muddy the waters a bit around the question of fake license plates, which are hardly defensible on any of these grounds.
From Slate • Apr. 25, 2023
“Rae, let’s not do this. You’re an amazing girl and we’ve got a good thing going, so let’s not muddy the waters, okay?”
From "Odd One Out" by Nic Stone
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.
