muddy, adj. and n.2
Forms:
lME– moddy, lME– muddy, 15 moddie, 15 moudy, 15–16 muddie; Sc. pre-17 mudie, pre-17 mudy, pre-17 17– muddy, pre-17 18 muddie. (Show Less)
Origin: Formed within English, by derivation. Etymons: mud n.1, -y suffix1.
Etymology: < mud n.1 + -y suffix1. Compare Middle Low German moddich, muddich (German regional (Low German) muddig) muddy, mouldy.
Apparently attested earlier in place names, as e.g. Mudiford (1086; now Mudford, Somerset), Modihull (1250; Warwickshire, now lost): compare discussion s.v. mud n.1
A. adj.
I. Of or relating to mud.
1. Containing much mud; consisting of mud; (of water) made turbid or cloudy by the presence of soil or mud. Also: covered or spattered with mud. Frequently in fig. context.
c1450
(▸1410)
J. Walton tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos.
(Linc. Cathedral 103)
161 (MED)
Ye fooles plungen doun ȝoure hertes even Into þis muddy grounde.
1526 Pylgrimage of Perfection
(de Worde)
f. 114
Take muddy water out of a dyche.
1565 A. Golding tr. Ovid Fyrst Fower Bks. Metamorphosis i. f. 6
Whose streame as at that tyme Began too ronne within his bankes thowghe thicke with muddy slyme.
1598 J. Marston Scourge of Villanie sig. A3v
My minde disdaines the dungie muddy scum Of abiect thoughts.
1616 G. Markham tr. C. Estienne et al. Maison Rustique
(rev. ed.)
508
A sharpe instrument of yron made thinne with many sharpe teeth, and so striken into holes or muddie banks.
1697 Dryden tr. Virgil Georgics iv, in tr. Virgil Wks. 143
All these Cocytus bounds with squalid Reeds, With Muddy Ditches, and with deadly Weeds.
1705 J. Addison Remarks Italy 461
It was extreamly muddy at its Entrance..though as clear as Rock Water at its going out.
1737 W. Whiston tr. Josephus Hist. Jewish Wars vii. viii. §4 in tr. Josephus Genuine Wks.
Free from the mixture of all terrine and muddy particles of matter.
1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters i. 36
The stagnant waters of ponds..are always foul, heavy, muddy, and ill-tasted.
1842 ‘G. Eliot’ in J. W. Cross George Eliot's Life
(1885)
I. 116
I..have thought..my life the shallowest, muddiest, most unblessing stream.
1859 C. Kingsley Misc.
(1860)
I. 19
By spreading his cloak over a muddy place for Queen Elizabeth to step on.
1884 Western Morning News 9 Sept. 4/5
The station..was filled by a muddy throng.
1915 A. Conan Doyle Valley of Fear i. iii. 48
He held down the light, and the marks of muddy boots were very visible in the corner.
1952 J. Steinbeck East of Eden i. 1
It trapped cows and pigs and sheep and drowned them in its muddy brown water.
1988 Independent 24 Aug. 27/8
He..believed that a historian must ‘get his boots muddy’ in the subject he was studying.
c1450—1988(Hide quotations)
2. Living or growing in mud. Now rare.
1598 Queen Elizabeth I tr. Horace De Arte Poetica in Queen Elizabeth's Englishings
(1899)
6
That face aboue of woman faire, The rest fowle Like the moudy fische.
1611 J. Florio Queen Anna's New World of Words at Melogna
A kind of muddy fish.
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues
Clonisse [read clouisse], the little, sharpe, and muddie cockle, tearmed, a Palour.
1818 Shelley Marenghi xv
And on the other, creeps eternally, Through muddy weeds, the shallow sullen sea.
1883 ‘A. Thomas’ Mod. Housewife 99
There are plenty of grey mullet to be caught;..I will dress them in such a way as shall make you fail to recognise our muddy friend.
1598—1883(Hide quotations)
3. Of the nature of mud, resembling mud (esp. in colour or taste).
1605 P. Erondell French Garden xi. sig. M4v
Carye away then this Pyke, that Carpe, this Breame, this Tench, and the Eele also, for it is too muddy.
1712 Boston News-let. 22–9 Sept. 2/2
A great Coat dy'd a muddy colour.
1864 Chambers's Encycl. VI. 162/2
The flesh [of the Lake Loach] is soft and has a muddy flavour.
1880 C. R. Markham Peruvian Bark 173
On one morning the surging flood being black,..and on another a light muddy colour.
1894 K. Grahame Pagan Papers 108
Mud is muddier now than heretofore; and ruts are ruttier.
1915 Forerunner Jan. 13/1
The main encampment was on a spit of land running out into..what we thought was the main stream. It had the same muddy color we had been seeing for weeks past.
1997 J. Updike Toward End of Time 319
The bloated, feeble state of our sun—the muddy color of brick.
1605—1997(Hide quotations)
II. Extended uses. 8. Of writing, speech, thought, etc.: obscure, vague; confused, illogical; badly expressed.
4.
a. Not clear in mind; confused, muddled. Now rare.
?1571 tr. G. Buchanan Detectioun Marie Quene of Scottes sig. Iiij
With rashe violent motioun of a muddy troublit minde.
a1616 Shakespeare Winter's Tale
(1623)
i. ii. 327
Do'st thinke I am so muddy, so vnsetled, To appoint my selfe in this vexation?
1670 J. Bunyan No Way to Heaven but by Christ in Wks.
(1845)
122
If the understanding be muddy as to this, it is impossible that such should be sound in the faith.
1682 J. W. Let. from New-Eng. 7
As to their Drunkenness,..they..seldom go to bed without muddy brains.
1717 R. Wodrow Let. 28 Sept.
(1843)
II. 317
A muddy divine, and mystical philosopher.
1834 T. Hood Lament Toby x
Day after day my lessons fade, My intellect gets muddy.
1876 ‘G. Eliot’ Let. 25 Feb.
(1956)
VI. 223
I am rather muddy as to the relation of total sales.
1934 A. Huxley Let. 28 Apr.
(1969)
380
Pareto..doesn't, like these ‘deep’ and muddy Germans, invent gratuitous metaphysical entities.
?1571—1934(Hide quotations)
†b. Partly intoxicated. Cf. muddled adj. 2. Obs.
1776 Johnson in J. Boswell Life Johnson
(1831)
III. 348
Not that he gets drunk, for he is a very pious man, but he is always muddy.
1843 J. Nicholson Hist. & Tradit. Tales 414
The fiddler waxed muddy and was often heard scraping behind the fiddle bridge.
1776—1843(Hide quotations)
5. Not clear in appearance; impure.
a. Of any liquid: thick or opaque, usually with some suspended matter; not clear, cloudy.
1590 W. Clever Flower of Phisicke 102
The vrine muddie, bloody, blacke, and thicke.
1610 G. Markham Maister-peece 21
For his water, the more pure it is, the better, and the more muddy, thicke and pleasant, so much the more unhealthful.
a1661 T. Fuller Worthies
(1662)
Northampt. 291
Thus the most generous Wines are the most muddy, before they are fine.
1708 J. Philips Cyder ii. 313
Take care The muddy Bev'rage to serene.
1805 ‘Ignotus’ Culina
(ed. 2)
140
Nothing is so disagreeable as a muddy gravy soup.
1836 J. W. Carlyle Lett.
(1883)
I. 61
We breakfasted..on muddy coffee and scorched toast.
1870 J. R. Lowell My Study Windows 47
Quartpots are for muddier liquor than nectar.
1916 E. H. Porter Just David i
The coffee was lukewarm and muddy. Even the milk was sour.
1970 G. Dickson Hour of Horde i. 5
Miles Vander threw the number four brush..back into the pint fruit jar of muddy turpentine.
1995 Coffee Jrnl. Autumn 47/1
In Athens folks stream to tavernas for a muddy, sweet Greek coffee or iced cafe frappe.
1590—1995(Hide quotations)
b. Not clear or pure in colour or appearance; (spec. of light) clouded, opaque; (spec. of a colour) dull, dirty-looking. Cf. muddy-brown adj. and n. at Special uses 2.
1600 Shakespeare Midsummer Night's Dream iii. ii. 140
To what, my loue, shall I compare thine eyne! Christall is muddy .
1610 R. Tofte Honours academie i. 18
Sometimes he would be with her, in the thicke and muddie shade.
1658 J. Gadbury Γενετηλιαλογια 83
A muddy-duskish-brown-swarthy Complexion.
1662 Bp. E. Hopkins Funeral Serm.
(1685)
91
The dim and muddy light of this world.
1710 London Gaz. No. 4737/3
One Timothy Hall, of middle Stature, muddy Complexion.
1743 M. Catesby Nat. Hist. Carolina II. 46
They are of a brown Colour, except their Bellies, which are of a muddy Red or Copper Colour.
a1806 J. Barry in R. N. Wornum Lect. on Painting
(1848)
215
When a light colour, though opaque, is thinly spread over a dark one, it is by the colour underneath rendered dim and muddy.
1841 R. W. Emerson Ess. 1st Ser.
(Boston ed.)
iv. 128
When a man speaks the truth.., his eye is as clear as the heavens. When he..speaks falsely, the eye is muddy and sometimes asquint.
1898 P. Manson Trop. Dis. xxii. 350
His friends observed that his face had become muddy and haggard.
1915 Mrs. H. Ward Eltham House xiii. 241
A tall bald-headed man, possessed of..a muddy complexion.
1984 Artist Sept. 16/3
Colours, based on black, that any art teacher would at once stigmatise as ‘muddy’.
1993 Architect. Rev. Jan. 17/3
Unfortunately the book has two failings. Some of the diagrams are too small to be readable and a number of both illustrations and photographs are muddy.
1600—1993(Hide quotations)
c. Chiefly literary and poet. Of air: impure; polluted.
a1628 F. Greville Treat. Monarchy xii, in Remains
(1670)
152
And so we see in muddy Northern air, Winds, Thunders, Storms, (Earths present misery).
1653 W. Ramesey Astrologie Restored iv. iv. 293
[It] cometh..a clowdy dark muddy ayr.
1726 G. Leoni tr. L. B. Alberti Archit. I. 5/1
The Air for want of Motion will grow thick and muddy.
1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth I. 357
Our own muddy atmosphere, that wraps us round in obscurity.
a1930 D. H. Lawrence Last Poems
(1932)
32
In the bursten cities The dead tread heavily through the muddy air Through the mire of fumes.
1998 G. Stern This Time 198
It was a rising that brought the worms. They came when the bodies came, the air was muddy.
a1628—1998(Hide quotations)
6. Of a person, look, countenance, etc.: gloomy; sullen; glowering. Now rare.
1592 Arden of Feversham sig. F
Waigh all thy good turns, with this little fault, And I deserve not Mosbies muddy lookes.
1638 R. Baker tr. J. L. G. de Balzac New Epist. III. 33
Shee aspires to no glory by sullen humours; she hath nothing muddy, nor clownish in her.
1686 A. Horneck Crucified Jesus vii. 124
When a man begins to look with a chearful countenance, and the muddy complexion clears up.
1722 A. Ramsay Tale Three Bonnets ii. 18
Wheel'd round with glooming Brows and muddy, And left his Brither in a Study.
1736 R. Ainsworth Thes. Linguæ Latinæ
A muddy or cloudy look, vultus tetricus.
1872 Appletons' Jrnl. 8 36
His failure was complete. He only produced a muddy expression, which meant every thing and any thing.
1935 J. T. Farrell Judgment Day xvii. 404
The very thought of it made her feel muddy.
1592—1935(Hide quotations)
7. Originally: sinful; morally impure or corrupt; carnal. Later: of questionable morality or legality.
1600 Larum for London
(1602)
sig. C4b
The muddie roagues that hoorded vp their coyne.
1603 H. Crosse Vertues Common-wealth sig. R2v
She is a muddie queane, a filthy beast.
1653 H. More Conjectura Cabbalistica 54
The muddy and tumultuous suggestions of the Flesh.
a1679 W. Outram 20 Serm.
(1682)
279
On one hand there are stable joys..on the other muddy and fleeting pleasures.
1793 Ld. Spencer in Ld. Auckland's Corr.
(1862)
III. 114
Renard's is a muddy business.
1882 R. L. Stevenson New Arabian Nights I. 215
Your business..is too muddy for such airs.
1928 D. H. Lawrence Lady Chatterley's Lover xvii. 321
I have been to the depths of the muddy lives of the Bertha Couttses of this world.
1967 Punch 8 Feb. 190/2
This touched the muddiest depths of smear journalism.
1993 Guardian 25 Oct. ii. 36/1
John Goddard and Bernard Hall's film follows the officers into this muddy world of gangers, gangmasters and migrant labour.
1600—1993(Hide quotations)
8. Of writing, speech, thought, etc.: obscure, vague; confused, illogical; badly expressed.
1611 M. Smith in Bible
(King James)
Transl. Pref. sig. ⁋7
Therefore the Greeke being not altogether cleare, the Latine deriued from it must needes be muddie.
1643 D. Featley in S. Newman Concord. Bible
(advt.)
4
In this thickest and muddiest passage in which no Lincius [1650 Lynceus] can see any bottome, the Originall is very cleare.
1716 M. Davies Crit. Hist. 31 in Athenæ Britannicæ III
His own Imitation of Quintilian's muddy Expression.
1741 Ld. Chesterfield Let. Aug.
(1932)
(modernized text)
II. 472
Every man..may be clear and perspicuous in his recitals, instead of dark and muddy.
1792 M. Wollstonecraft Vindic. Rights Woman ii. 42
Soldiers acquire..superficial knowledge, snatched from the muddy current of conversation.
1840 Thackeray Paris Sketch Bk. II. 105
The present muddy French transcendentalism.
a1872 W. J. M. Rankine Songs & Fables
(1874)
40
His style is never muddy.
1962 Daily Tel. 1 June 14/8
Another muddy gem for your collection. ‘Accentuating his interestingness of person is his manner of speech’—from America's premier theological journal.
1995 L. Garrett Coming Plague
(new ed.)
ix. 236
Though their understanding of the relationship between these insects and specific diseases was muddy, writers in ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, India, and China, all drew attention to the insect problem.
1611—1995(Hide quotations)
9.
†a. Of the voice: thick, indistinct, esp. as a result of drinking alcohol. Obs. rare.
1841 J. T. J. Hewlett Parish Clerk I. 69
The squire..said, with a muddy voice [etc.].
1841—1841(Hide quotations)
b. Of sound (chiefly in musical performance, recording, or reproduction): blurred, not clearly defined.
1950 Audio Engin. Sept. 14/3
A fairly large excess [in the response to sounds in the lower middle range] may cause a system to be condemned as dead, dull, or thick, while an inordinate excess is muddy or drummy.
1973 Gramophone Sept. 556/2
The much-praised recording strikes me as being rather muddy and bottom-heavy.
1999 Cathedral Music 1 38/3
Does the nature of the acoustics suggest that visiting organists..can never play..at a quicker tempo without the music becoming muddy?
1950—1999(Hide quotations)
B. n.2
With the. Usually more fully the Big Muddy. The Missouri River; (also) its affluent, the Mississippi River. U.S. colloq.Cf. big drink n. at drink n. 6.
[1765 R. Rogers Conc. Acct. N. Amer. 190
The Muddy River rises from the south of the central mountains..and runs south..till it meets the Mississippi.]
1825 in S. F. Cooper Rural Hours
(1850)
481
Ye plains where sweet Big-Muddy rolls along, And Teapot, one day to be found in song.
?1845 Crockett's Almanac, 1846
Down the Mississippi... Ben and me went to take passage down the Big Muddy.
1884 ‘M. Twain’ Adventures Huckleberry Finn xvi. 129
When it was daylight, here was the clear Ohio water in shore,..and outside was the old regular Muddy.
1923 National Geographic Mag. Apr. 438/2
From St. Louis west and north, up the valley of the Big Muddy, all the way to Kansas City.
1948 Newsweek 30 Aug. 21/3
We're going clear to the Missouri River and smash this stuff back across the Big Muddy.
1977 H. O'Hagan Woman who got on at Jasper Station 25
Jake..kept his money..cached beyond the clearing of his cabin on the Muddy in a hole in a rock wall.
1999 Esquire Mar. 46/1
What you'd hear if you picked up every hitchhiking musician along the Big Muddy from Minnesota to Louisiana.
1825—1999(Hide quotations)
Special uses
Chiefly parasynthetic. S1.
muddy-bottomed adj.
1874 J. W. Long Amer. Wild-fowl Shooting xiv. 185
They are very partial to small, muddy-bottomed streams.
1988 J. Purseglove Taming Flood i. 4
The ‘Banded Damsel’..is abundant on muddy-bottomed, less acid waters.
1874—1988(Hide quotations)
muddy-brained adj.
1634 J. Ford Chron. Hist. Perkin Warbeck ii. sig. E2v
Muddie-braynd peasants?
1698 E. Ward Trip to Jamaica
(1700)
6
A Muddy-Brain'd Society, who could talk of nothing but Prime Cost and profit.
1862 Vanity Fair
(N.Y.)
4 Jan. 82
The people see it clearly—none but a muddy-brained senator ‘can't see it’.
1999 Sunday Gaz.-Mail
(Charleston, W. Va.)
(Nexis)
1 Aug. p10
Those Americans who are not Christians or Jews..will be forced to imbibe a religious belief not their own because of this muddy-brained legislation.
1634—1999(Hide quotations)
muddy-headed adj.
1642 T. Fuller Holy State ii. xvi. 110
Many boys are muddy-headed till they be clarified with age.
1815 R. Thorpe Let. to W. Wilberforce
(ed. 3)
78
(note)
The ignorant and muddy-headed confusion, in which the Institution mixed the two Treaties.
1956 W. H. Whyte Organization Man
(1957)
137
The muddy-headed way so many of us [talk].
1992 Toronto Star
(Nexis)
22 Dec. a19
The muddy-headed ideology of the ‘politically correct’.
1642—1992(Hide quotations)
muddy-kneed adj.
1985 Arkansas Gaz. 15 Mar. e1/1
Golden agers in muddy-kneed pedal pushers.
1990 Vanity Fair
(N.Y.)
Dec. 173/1
The muddy-kneed pleasure of one who cultivates an internal garden.
1985—1990(Hide quotations)
muddy-looking adj.
1844 J. H. Ingraham Diary Hackney Coachman 38
Muddy-looking and broken-nosed cruits containing articles that evidently were meant to represent pepper, vinegar and mustard.
1856 A. M. Murray Lett. from U.S. 192
The small stream it crosses is called Cedar Creek, which, like all the rivers of this district, is as turbid and as muddy-looking as the Ouse, in Bedfordshire.
1962 W. Granville Dict. Sailors' Slang 68/2
The origin of the word is dialectal, from the adjective kyish, muddy-looking, brown.
2000 Science
(Electronic ed.)
30 June
High-resolution pictures of muddy-looking gullies on the sides of martian craters, suggesting the prospect of liquid water on..the surface of the planet.
1844—2000(Hide quotations)
† muddy mettled adj. Obs. rare
1604 Shakespeare Hamlet ii. ii. 569
A dull and muddy metteld raskall.
1604—1604(Hide quotations)
muddy-minded adj.
1595 R. Southwell St. Peter's Complaint 62
Giue not assent to muddy minded skill.
1601 J. Marston et al. Iacke Drums Entertainm. ii. sig. C4v
Let the vnsanctified spirit of ambition Entice the choyse of muddy minded Dames To yoke themselues to swine.
1867 Trollope Last Chron. Barset II. lxi. 185
Though he knew himself to be muddy-minded and addle-pated, he could see that.
2000 Daily News
(Los Angeles)
(Nexis)
24 Jan. l11
A muddy-minded standoff finding our buttock-baring buddy locked..in the principal's office.
1595—2000(Hide quotations)
muddy-pated adj.
1588 A. Fraunce Lawiers Logike i. vii. f. 40
Hee is but a muddy-pated asse.
1897 W. Beatty Secretar 136
Maister Gregory had forgat what every jolly ruffler, even when muddy pated, is a stickler for.
1588—1897(Hide quotations)
muddy-rivered adj. of a muddy river; having a muddy river or rivers.
1655 T. Moffett & C. Bennet Healths Improvem. ix. 185
If fenney or muddy-rivered fishes be unwholesome, the Pike is not so good as Authors make him.
1868 Labourers' Friend 1 Jan. 23
The assailants who are besieging our smoke-begrimed and murky, muddy-rivered city.
1998 G. Jacobik Double Task 72
The muddy-rivered south.
1655—1998(Hide quotations)
muddy-souled adj.
1839 Times 25 Mar. 4/3
That muddy-souled economist Joseph Hume.
1839—1839(Hide quotations)
muddy-witted adj.
1866 Old Guard Mar. 156/2
This avoidance, the muddy-witted fellow mistook for the shyness or coquetry of love.
1872 O. W. Holmes Poet at Breakfast-table i. 24
If I..were..muddy-witted.
1866—1872(Hide quotations)
S2.
muddy-brown adj. and n.
1799 J. Robertson Gen. View Agric. Perth 34
Slates..of a muddy brown complexion.
1889 Harper's Mag. Aug. 414/1
The ware emerged from the kiln at this stage dull and clouded, of a thick muddy brown or greenish color.
1985 A. S. Byatt Still Life
(1988)
(BNC)
67
Van Gogh had divided his painting of the Yellow House with a soft, muddy-brown line.
1799—1985(Hide quotations)
muddy-grey adj. and n.
1769 Pennsylvania Gaz. 16 Mar. 4/2
(advt.)
A light iron-grey Horse (or rather may be called muddy grey) 6 or 7 year old this spring.
1873 T. Hardy Pair of Blue Eyes II. viii. 161
He pointed to a short fragment of level muddy-gray colour, cutting across the sky.
1939 ‘N. Blake’ Smiler with Knife vi. 96
Her face looked muddy-grey.
1998 M. Bail Eucalyptus
(1999)
xxx. 212
Her hair had gone from bottle-blonde to muddy-grey.
1769—1998(Hide quotations)
muddy-yellow adj. and n.
1758 Philos. Trans. 1757
(Royal Soc.)
50 133
The mixture would have become of a muddy yellow colour, by the separation of the ochre.
1850 Sci. Amer. 13 Apr. 234/2
The atmosphere was of a muddy yellow color, and the rain had the appearance of liquid sulphur.
1906 J. London White Fang iv. ii. 204
His eyes were yellow and muddy,... It was the same with his hair,..muddy-yellow and dirty-yellow, rising on his head..in unexpected tufts and bunches.
2001 Asbury Park Press
(Neptune, New Jersey)
(Nexis)
19 Jan. g19
The body of the fish is about eight times as long as it is deep and appears reddish brown, tan or olive-red or muddy yellow on top and occasionally on the belly.
1758—2001(Hide quotations)
S3.
muddy oaf n. (cf. muddied oaf n. at muddied adj. 1.)
1902–3 Proc. Royal Soc. 71 114
It is hard to discover any statistical evidence in school life for such expressions as ‘the flannelled fool at the wicket’, or ‘the muddy oaf at the goal’.
1934 R. Campbell Broken Rec. ii. 51
Modern international rugby has been going more and more in the muddy-oaf direction.
1997 Sunday Times
(Nexis)
30 Mar. (Culture section) 31/4
This all depends on how besotted you are with muddy oafs, and I'm not at all. I hated football at school and..ever since.
1902–3—1997(Hide quotations)