释义 |
▪ I. muddy n. var. of *muddie n. ▪ II. † ˈmuddy, n.1 Obs. [? Subst. use of muddy a.: see quot. 1806.] A kind of coach.
1801in Spirit Publ. Jrnls. V. 233 No more the stylish, well-enamell'd fair Lolls in her muddy with affected air. 1806T. S. Surr Winter in Lond. II. 210 [She] bespoke..a coach hung so low that it obtained the name of a muddy. ▪ III. muddy, a. (and n.2)|ˈmʌdɪ| Also 6 moudy, mudie, 6–7 muddie. [f. mud n.1 + -y.] 1. a. Abounding in mud; turbid or foul with mud; covered or bespattered with mud.
1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 114 Take muddy water out of a dyche. 1555Eden Decades 99 He wandered throughe many..muddy marysshes. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 687 All these Cocytus bounds with squalid Reeds, With muddy Ditches, and with deadly Weeds. 1756C. Lucas Ess. Waters I. 36 The stagnant waters of ponds..are always foul, heavy, muddy, and ill-tasted. 1859Kingsley Misc. (1860) I. 19 By spreading his cloak over a muddy place for Queen Elizabeth to step on. 1884West. Morn. News 9 Sept. 4/5 The station..was filled by a muddy throng. b. Of the nature of mud, resembling mud.
1737Whiston Josephus, Wars vii. viii. §4 Free from the mixture of all terrine and muddy particles of matter. 1864Chamb. Encycl. VI. 162/2 The flesh [of the Lake Loach] is soft and has a muddy flavour. 1880C. R. Markham Peruv. Bark 173 On one morning the surging flood being black,..and on another a light muddy colour. c. As n. The Missouri or Mississippi. Esp. the Big Muddy, the Missouri River.
1825in S. F. Cooper Rural Hours (1850) 481 Ye plains where sweet Big-Muddy rolls along, and Teapot, one day to be found in song. 1859Trans. Illinois Agric. Soc. III. 352 In the winter of '55–6, when one wide sweep of destruction laid dead most of the orchard trees north of the Big Muddy. 1884‘Mark Twain’ Huck. Finn lxvi. 130 When it was daylight, here was the clear Ohio water inshore,..and outside was the old regular Muddy. 1948Newsweek 30 Aug. 21/3 We're going clear to the Missouri River and smash this stuff back across the Big Muddy. 2. Living or growing in mud.
1598Queen Elizabeth Horace 6 That face aboue of woman faire, The rest fowle Like the moudy fische. 1611Florio, Melogna, a kind of muddy fish. 1818Shelley Marenghi xv, And on the other, creeps eternally, Through muddy weeds, the shallow sullen sea. 1883‘Annie 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. 3. Of a liquid: Not clear, thick, turbid.
1618Latham 2nd Bk. Falconry (1633) 19 With muddie and bloudie water in it verie often. a1661Fuller Worthies, Northampt. (1662) ii. 291 Thus the most generous Wines are the most muddy before they are fine. 1708J. Philips Cyder ii. 313 Take care The muddy Bev'rage to serene. 1806A. Hunter Culina (ed. 3) 148 Nothing is so disagreeable as a muddy gravy soup. 1836Mrs. Carlyle Lett. (1883) I. 61 We breakfasted..on muddy coffee and scorched toast. 1843Borrow Bible in Spain ii. 12 There they..drink the muddy but strong wine of the Alemtejo. 4. transf. a. Not clear or pure in colour. Of light: Dull, smoky.
1590Shakes. Mids. N. iii. ii. 139 To what, my loue, shall I compare thine eyne! Christall is muddy. 1658J. Gadbury Doctr. Nativities 83 A muddy-duskish-brown-swarthy Complexion. 1662Bp. Hopkins Serm., Funeral (1685) 91 The dim and muddy light of this world. 1710Lond. Gaz. No. 4737/3 One Timothy Hall, of middle Stature, muddy Complexion. 1784Barry in Lect. Paint. vi. (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. 1844Disraeli Coningsby i. i, A muddy mezzotinto of the Duke of Wellington. 1856Kane Arct. Expl. I. xv. 173 We work by muddy tapers of cork and cotton floated in saucers. 1898P. Manson Trop. Diseases xxii. 350 His friends observed that his face had become muddy and haggard. b. Of the voice: Thick, esp. through drinking.
1841J. T. J. Hewlett Parish Clerk I. 69 The squire..said, with a muddy voice [etc.]. c. Of air: Impure. ? Obs.
1726Leoni Alberti's Archit. I. 5/1 The Air for want of Motion will grow thick and muddy. d. Of a musical sound: blurred, not clearly differentiated.
1962A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio iii. 55 The balance to seek is one where you get plenty of reverberation, but not so much that the sound becomes muddy or coloured. 5. a. Not clear in mind; confused, muddled.
1611Shakes. Wint. T. i. ii. 325 Do'st thinke I am so muddy, so vnsetled, To appoint my selfe in this vexation? 1670Bunyan No Way to Heaven but by Christ Wks. (1845) 122 If the understanding be muddy as to this, it is impossible that such should be sound in the faith. 1682J. W. Let. fr. New-Eng. 7 As to their Drunkenness,..they..seldom go to bed without muddy brains. 1790Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 152 Cold hearts and muddy understandings. 1834Hood Lament Toby x, Day after day my lessons fade, My intellect gets muddy. 1876Geo. Eliot Let. 25 Feb. (1956) VI. 223, I am rather muddy as to the relation of total sales. 1934A. Huxley Let. 28 Apr. (1969) 380 Pareto{ddd}doesn't, like these ‘deep’ and muddy Germans, invent gratuitous metaphysical entities. b. Partly intoxicated. Now rare or Obs.
1776Johnson in Boswell Life (1831) III. 348 Not that he gets drunk, for he is a very pious man, but he is always muddy. 1843Nicholson Hist. & Tradit. T. 414 The fiddler waxed muddy and was often heard scraping behind the fiddle bridge. 6. Of literary style, thought, etc.: Obscure, vague, confused.
1611Bible Transl. Pref. ⁋7 Therefore the Greeke being not altogether cleare, the Latine deriued from it must needes be muddie. 1643Featley in Newman's 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. 1716M. Davies Athen. Brit. III. 31 His own Imitation of Quintilian's muddy Expression. 1741Chesterfield Lett. (1792) I. lxxvii. 213 Every man..may be clear and perspicuous in his recitals instead of dark and muddy. 1840Thackeray Paris Sk.-bk. (1872) 173 The present muddy French transcendentalism. a1872Rankine Songs & Fables (1874) 40 His style is never muddy. 7. Morally impure or ‘dirty’. Now rare.
1413Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton 1483) iv. ii. 59 Spyrituel men, that ben contemplatyf, hauen sette theyr hertes in heyghte and drawen them oute of this moddy erthe. 1603H. Crosse Vertues Commw. (1878) 128 She is a muddie queane, a filthy beast. 1653H. More Conject. Cabbal. (1713) 25 The muddy and tumultuous suggestions of the Flesh. a1679W. Outram Serm. (1682) 279 On one hand there are stable joys..on the other muddy and fleeting pleasures. 1793Ld. Spencer in Ld. Auckland's Corr. (1862) III. 114 Renard's is a muddy business. 1882Stevenson New Arab. Nts. (1884) 142 Your business..is too muddy for such airs. †8. Gloomy; sullen. Obs.
1638Baker tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. III.) 33 Shee aspires to no glory by sullen humours, she hath nothing muddy, nor clownish in her. 1686A. Horneck Crucif. Jesus vii. 124 When a man begins to look with a chearful countenance, and the muddy complexion clears up. 1722Ramsay Three Bonnets ii. 107 Wheel'd round wi' gloomy brows and muddy, And left his brither in a study. 1736Ainsworth Lat. Dict., A muddy or cloudy look, vultus tetricus. 9. Comb., chiefly parasynthetic: muddy-bottomed, muddy-brained, muddy-grey, muddy-headed, muddy-mettled, muddy-minded adjs.; muddy oaf [cf. muddied ppl. a.].
1874J. W. Long Amer. Wild-fowl xiv. 185 They are very partial to small, *muddy-bottomed streams.
1634Ford Perk. Warbeck ii. iii, *Muddy brain'd peasants!
1939‘N. Blake’ Smiler with Knife vi. 96 Her face looked *muddy-grey.
1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. ii. xvi. 110 Many boys are *muddy-headed till they be clarified with age. 1815R. Thorpe Let. to W. Wilberforce (ed. 3) 78 note, The ignorant and muddy-headed confusion, in which the Institution mixed the two Treaties.
1602Shakes. Ham. ii. ii. 594 A dull and *muddy-metled Rascall.
1601? Marston Pasquil & Kath. ii. 145 Let the vnsanctified spirit of ambition Entice the choice of *muddie-minded dames To yoke themselues to swine. 1867Trollope Last Chron. Barset II. lxi. 185 Though he knew himself to be *muddy-minded and addle-pated, he could see that. 1956W. H. Whyte Organization Man (1957) iv. 33 People who have been the intellectual founders..have not been as muddy-minded.
1934R. Campbell Broken Record ii. 51 Modern international rugby has been going more and more in the *muddy-oaf direction.
1588Fraunce Lawiers Log. i. vii. 40 Hee is but a *muddy-pated asse.
1839Times 25 Mar. 4/3 That *muddy-souled economist Joseph Hume.
1872O. W. Holmes Poet Breakf.-t. i. (1885) 22 If I..were..*muddy-witted. ▪ IV. muddy, v.|ˈmʌdɪ| [f. muddy a.] 1. trans. To make muddy, in various senses of the adj.; to cover or bespatter with mud; to render (water) turbid with mud; to make confused or obscure. Also with up.
1601Shakes. All's Well v. ii. 4, I am now sir muddied in fortunes mood, and smell somewhat strong of her strong displeasure. a1652J. Smith Sel. Disc. ix. 461 The Holy Spirit is too pure and gentle a thing to dwell in a mind muddied and disturbed by those impure dregs. 1669W. Simpson Hydrol. Chym. 136 Upon which if oyl of vitriol be dropt, it becomes clear again, and by oyl of tartar muddied. 1760Derrick Lett. (1767) I. 82 The springs and streams being all muddied with the continual rains. 1811Self Instructor 524 The former would be the means of muddying your colours. 1837Blackw. Mag. XLI. 603 He..began to muddy the water. 1893Leland Mem. II. 122, I only muddied the palms of my gloves, on which I fell. 1905E. Chandler Unveiling of Lhasa xi. 206 The..product of restless Western energies, stirring and muddying the shallows of the Eastern mind. 1917E. Pound Let. 10 Nov. (1971) 124 You thank your bloomin gawd you've got enough Spanish blood to muddy up your mind, and prevent the current American ideation from going through it like a blighted collander. 2. intr. To become muddy or turbid.
1834Landor Exam. Shaks. Wks. 1846 II. 276 Malt before hops, the world over, or the beer muddies. |