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:
Dramatic footage posted online late Wednesday and collated by DHA showed a line of parked cars in the northern Sariyer district being pushed into the torrent of muddy water, where they were swept away.
From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026
At intervals of 20 years and sometimes more often, it has lashed and splashed us, turned our living rooms into muddy aquariums, swept away our cars and houses, and sometimes hundreds of Angelenos.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026
Army personnel lowered themselves from the helicopter and clambered up a muddy slope to pull out people covered in mud.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026
The Daily Telegraph's front page shows muddy flood waters washing away a bridge.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
Ajay was already stretched out on the muddy bank at the far side of the pond, pretending to be asleep.
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
The outlook for USC’s rushing attack may only get muddier from there.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 26, 2024
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
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
He crawled along the gully in the direction that seemed the muddiest.
From "Holes" by Louis Sachar
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
Ms. Nović’s habit of jumping from her life story at one age to another and then back again muddies the timeline as well as the reader’s understanding of what happened when.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
“Old inventory muddies the income statement. Cohort performance tells you that this new Opendoor 2.0 machine works.”
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 20, 2026
"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
U.S. stocks fell after surprisingly strong jobs data muddied the outlook for Federal Reserve policy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
Even if he fails in court, Cohen’s turnabout has muddied the case in the court of public opinion, letting Trump claim vindication.
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2026
The effects of the climate cycle on wildfires are muddied by countless other weather and ecological factors.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
Over the weekend Haseeb Hameed and Dom Sibley, two openers from England's past eyeing a recall, also made centuries which muddied the selection waters further.
From BBC ● Apr. 28, 2026
I stare at the muddied water as it swirls down the drain.
From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed
The quiet period runs through the day after the meeting ends—in this case, at the end of Thursday—to keep individual officials from muddying the committee’s message immediately after a decision.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 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 broad classification, he acknowledged, is potentially muddying the department’s numbers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 3, 2025
How can you avoid muddying it up when you put it into words?
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
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