You can think of it as stirring things until they lose their places — like poking a stick into clear water with mud at the bottom: nothing is destroyed, but everything is now swirled together and you can no longer see which is which.
From the word’s history
From Middle Dutch moddelen, to make muddy, from modde (mud) — literally to stir up mud in water. The modern sense keeps that picture exactly: things are still there, but stirred until nothing is clear.
這個字從中古荷蘭語 moddelen 來，字面就是「把水弄濁」，字根 modde 就是「爛泥」；換句話說，muddle 本來講的是「把泥攪進水裡」這個具體動作。現代意思幾乎原封不動地保留了那個畫面：不是把東西毀掉，而是攪到看不清楚。理解這個字時，把它跟 mud（泥巴）放在一起記，那種「本來清澈、被攪濁了」的感覺就會自己浮出來。
Wiktionary『muddle』詞源條（← Middle Dutch moddelen「弄濁」← modde「泥」）
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。
原始詞典資料11 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
muddleverb詞源 1/ˈmʌdl̩/
- 1
To mix together, to mix up; to confuse.
- Young children tend to muddle their words.
- I will not , to please hostile critics , muddle the argument by making it one of recondite learning , in which neither I nor my readers are strong . I try to lay before the reader reasons from which he can judge for himself
- 2
To mash slightly for use in a cocktail.
- He muddled the mint sprigs in the bottom of the glass.
- 3
To dabble in mud.
- c. 1721-1722, Jonathan Swift, The Progress of Marriage Young ducklings foster'd by a hen; But, when let out, they run and muddle
- 4
To make turbid or muddy.
- He did ill to Muddle the Water.
- 5
To think and act in a confused, aimless way.
- 6
To cloud or stupefy; to render stupid with liquor; to intoxicate partially.
- Their old master Epicurus seems to have had his brains so muddled and confounded with them, that he scarce ever kept in the right way.
- […] I vvas for five Years often drunk, alvvays muddled, they carry'd me from Tavern to Tavern, to Alehouſes and Brandy Shops, and brought me acquainted vvith ſuch ſtrange Dogs!
- 7
To waste or misuse, as one does who is stupid or intoxicated.
- They muddle it [money] away without method or object, and without having anything to show for it.
muddlenoun詞源 1/ˈmʌdl̩/
- 1
A mixture; a confusion; a garble.
- The muddle of nervous speech he uttered did not have much meaning.
- As a result, no single party or coalition immediately gained enough parliamentary seats to govern, thrusting Spain into a familiar political muddle and giving new life to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who only days ago seemed moribund.
- 2
A mixture of crushed ingredients, as prepared with a muddler.
- 3
archaicA muddy mess.
- I must drive as quick with a thunder-rain pelting in my face, and the roads in a muddle, and the horses starting—I can’t call it shying, I have ’em too well in hand,—at every flash, just as quick as if it was a fine hard road, and fine weather.
muddlenoun詞源 2/ˈmʌdl̩/
- 1
historicalA servant's attendant; underservant.
- We bought a few rugs and odds and ends and our sitting room looks quite European; then we have a bedroom with 2 beds and a dressing room, also a corridor for the muddles and servants.
- I have an ayah (or lady's maid), and a tailor (for the ayahs cannot work); and A—84 has a boy: also two muddles—one to sweep my room, and another to bring water.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。