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.]

[1913 Webster]

He did ill to muddle the water. --L'Estrange. [1913 Webster]

2. To cloud or stupefy; to render stupid with liquor; to intoxicate partially. [1913 Webster]

Epicurus seems to have had brains so muddled and confounded, that he scarce ever kept in the right way. --Bentley. [1913 Webster]

Often drunk, always muddled. --Arbuthnot. [1913 Webster]

3. To waste or misuse, as one does who is stupid or intoxicated. [R.]

[1913 Webster]

They muddle it [money] away without method or object, and without having anything to show for it. --Hazlitt. [1913 Webster]

4. To mix confusedly; to confuse; to make a mess of; as, to muddle matters; also, to perplex; to mystify. --F. W. Newman. [1913 Webster]

Source: The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
 

111 Moby Thesaurus words for "muddled": addlebrained, addled, addleheaded, addlepated, anarchic, arsy-varsy, ass-backwards, at a loss, baffled, balled up, bamboozled, beat, beclouded, beery, befuddled, bemused, besotted, blear-witted, blind drunk, bollixed up, boozy, buffaloed, canned, chaotic, cloudy, confounded, confused, crapulent, crapulous, dazed, disconnected, discontinuous, disguised, disjointed, disordered, dizzy, drenched, drunk, drunken, far-gone, floored, flustered, fogged, foggy, fou, fouled up, fuddlebrained, fuddled, full, galley-west, gay, giddy, glorious, happy, hazy, helter-skelter, higgledy-piggledy, hugger-mugger, in a dilemma, in a fog, in a mess, in a muddle, in liquor, in suspense, inchoate, inebriate, inebriated, inebrious, intoxicated, jolly, jumbled, licked, maudlin, mellow, merry, misted, misty, mixed up, mucked up, muddleheaded, muddybrained, muzzy, mystified, nappy, nonplussed, on tenterhooks, perplexed, pixilated, plastered, puzzled, puzzleheaded, reeling, scattered, scramblebrained, screwed up, shikker, skimble-skamble, snafu, sodden, sotted, stuck, stumped, thrown, tiddly, tight, tipsy, topsy-turvy, unconnected, under the influence, unorganized, upside-down

Source: Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
 

muddled adj : confused and vague; used especially of thinking; "muddleheaded ideas"; "your addled little brain"; "woolly thinking"; "woolly-headed ideas" [syn: addled, befuddled, muzzy, woolly, wooly, woolly-headed, wooly-minded]

Source: WordNet (r) 2.0
 

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)