Muddle \Mud"dle\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Muddled; p. pr. & vb. n.
Muddling.]
[From Mud.]
1. To make turbid, or muddy, as water. [Obs.]
He did ill to muddle the water. --L'Estrange.
2. To cloud or stupefy; to render stupid with liquor; to
intoxicate partially.
Epicurus seems to have had brains so muddled and
confounded, that he scarce ever kept in the right
way. --Bentley.
Often drunk, always muddled. --Arbuthnot.
3. To waste or misuse, as one does who is stupid or
intoxicated. [R.]
They muddle it [money] away without method or
object, and without having anything to show for it.
--Hazlitt.
4. To mix confusedly; to confuse; to make a mess of; as, to
muddle matters; also, to perplex; to mystify. --F. W.
Newman.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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