What's the difference between huddle and muddle?

Huddle


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To press together promiscuously, from confusion, apprehension, or the like; to crowd together confusedly; to press or hurry in disorder; to crowd.
  • (v. t.) To crowd (things) together to mingle confusedly; to assemble without order or system.
  • (v. t.) To do, make, or put, in haste or roughly; hence, to do imperfectly; -- usually with a following preposition or adverb; as, to huddle on; to huddle up; to huddle together.
  • (n.) A crowd; a number of persons or things crowded together in a confused manner; tumult; confusion.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Miranda Hart as Chummy Brown in Call the Midwife By now, we are huddled around a heater.
  • (2) Though the thought of a Panama team listening to the USA team huddle coyly sharing their secrets is a rather sweet thought.
  • (3) Protesters crawl out from the tents they have pitched on the cobblestones and huddle in the cold around makeshift fires, as volunteers distribute hot tea and soup.
  • (4) During timeouts the coaches and the players huddle separately as if deliberately not sharing ideas.
  • (5) When the nest temperature was raised to thermoneutral, the direction of pup flow reversed and an immobile animal sank to the depths of the huddle.
  • (6) Over whoops and cheers from the residents, he turned to a huddle of police officers standing 50 yards away and warned: "I hope you're listening.
  • (7) But his capacity to digest playbooks is unrivalled – allowing Manning to lead the Colts offence in a way quite unlike other NFL quarterbacks: operating almost exclusively without a huddle and calling his plays at the line.
  • (8) In standardized tests of huddling behavior, 5-, 10-, 15-, and 20-day-old rat pups spent substantial and equivalent amounts of time with an immobile rat or a heated, fur-covered tube, which suggests that the conspecific and inanimate stimuli were equally attractive to the pups.
  • (9) They say that she didn't work for it but some people say that she fought for it," he said huddled over a small wooden box containing hundreds of grubby looking Liberian notes.
  • (10) Although it was hailed as a step forward by Brown and Obama, the weak content and the final huddled process of decision-making – ignoring the majority of the 192 nations present – provoked disappointment and fury.
  • (11) If we’re being pessimistic about it, the whole idea of the euro has been weakened and maybe we’ll look back and see this as the beginning of the end of that ideal.” She reflected a pessimistic feeling among Germans, whether financial experts or ordinary folk on the street, that the whole of Europe had taken a battering over the negotiations, one from which it would take time to recover; and the strong belief that the very same politicians would once again find themselves in a huddle over the same issue a few months down the line.
  • (12) Quietly, the children would huddle together and ask each other: “What will you have for breakfast?” And I remember saying: “Maybe an egg or a piece of bread and butter,” and tried to conjure up memories of home.
  • (13) The stereotypical image of a nation in which rising numbers of pensioners are being kept alive by modern medicine – but are crippled by arthritis, heart disease and Alzheimer's, and live huddled and defenceless in old people's homes – is simply not true.
  • (14) This is a regime that has already used poison gas to murder thousands of its own citisens - leaving the bodies of mothers huddled over their dead children.
  • (15) The effects of these treatments were assessed on pups' performance in a huddling test (Experiment 1 and 2) and an independent feeding test (Experiment 3).
  • (16) An aggregation or "huddling" behaviour with concomitant reduction in thyroid hormone activity, possibly in response to the density of the "huddle", is suggested as an explanation for these observations.
  • (17) A small hollow will suddenly open up in the undergrowth to reveal a huddle of a dozen Afghans – often waiting till nightfall before making for Hungary.
  • (18) Standardized videographic tests were used to assess the development of huddling preference.
  • (19) People no longer huddled together where they worked but had to drive out of town to the oil and gas fields and the mine that extracted trona (a mineral used to make baking soda, glass, detergents and textiles).
  • (20) As the lawmakers huddled with Trump for what is expected to be the first of many meetings, protesters gathered outside to show their disdain for the former reality TV star.

Muddle


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To make turbid, or muddy, as water.
  • (v. t.) To cloud or stupefy; to render stupid with liquor; to intoxicate partially.
  • (v. t.) To waste or misuse, as one does who is stupid or intoxicated.
  • (v. t.) To mix confusedly; to confuse; to make a mess of; as, to muddle matters; also, to perplex; to mystify.
  • (v. i.) To dabble in mud.
  • (v. i.) To think and act in a confused, aimless way.
  • (n.) A state of being turbid or confused; hence, intellectual cloudiness or dullness.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Of course, every divorce is costly; but muddling through would be even more costly.
  • (2) The failure to make the single currency work with a wider group of countries means that the attempt to muddle through has reached the end of its natural life.
  • (3) Instead, we're likely to be stuck with more muddling-through.
  • (4) "In this era where we see growing open-mindedness, his actions are muddle-headed and careless," said the letter, which was briefly posted to the internet before it was taken down by censors .
  • (5) Although it remains unclear why he chose to place the muddled woman in a kitchen – clinging to her mug and surrounded by children's toys – as opposed to say, in a laboratory or a truck, he claims all the words were authentically spoken by "women in dozens of focus groups around the country", prior to being stitched together in this latest triumph for the fashionable, verbatim school of drama.
  • (6) McCluskey, with Unite probably Labour’s single largest donor, has claimed Labour lost the election not because it was too leftwing but largely because it had a muddled message on austerity and lacked a coherent narrative linking together individually popular policies.
  • (7) A toxic mix of cuts and muddled thinking about personalisation has led some to suggest that social work is an optional extra in adult social care.
  • (8) Hungry delphiniums, water-loving astilbe and drought-tolerant lupins would all be muddled together, with the thirstiest plants dictating the watering regime.
  • (9) United were sterile in possession, the ball was given away with monotonous regularity in dangerous positions and their muddled thinking was encapsulated by the sight of Phil Jones taking a couple of corners and Neil Swarbrick, the referee, penalising Antonio Valencia for a foul throw.
  • (10) Having read her book and met her, however, I wouldn't be surprised if the debate becomes muddled with how she presents her case – because she annoyed me so much when we met, we almost ended up having a row, despite the fact that I agree with a great deal of what she says.
  • (11) Drinks at Jade Bar are in keeping with the spa setting: fruity and herbaceous “muddles” (alcoholic or not) are a speciality, and the bartenders host mixology sessions on Sundays, or by appointment.
  • (12) At the time they were stressful – battling with traffic, fights over radio stations, squabbles over who was going to sit in the front seat and listening to a muddle of languages together with drama lines and songs to be sung.
  • (13) Sara Parkin London • It is very apposite of Zoe Williams ( Opinion , 25 February) to quote Roberto Unger with regard to the supposed “unmasking” of the Green party leader as some kind of political fraud; namely, she tried to answer a question directly and got into a bit of a muddle.
  • (14) Sean Spicer muddles answer when pressed on Trump and Russia investigation Read more Page, like Trump, has challenged US policy towards Russia and called for warmer relations between the two countries.
  • (15) Like Rona Jaffe's novel of the 50s, The Best of Everything – a book that Rakoff loves and reread before she started work on My Salinger Year – it is concerned with what it feels like to move to the big city, to take on your first job, and to struggle to survive on a tiny salary when all the while your dreams are seemingly being snuffed out at every turn, and your love life is spiralling into muddle and mayhem.
  • (16) Wallace is a hopeless deadpan dropout, a loser in love and a bumbling muddle.
  • (17) This is a very badly timed speech, showing some very muddled and dangerous thinking.
  • (18) The substitutions were muddle-headed, the team too negative, he might have won the World Cup but now he had lost it.
  • (19) The reality for many disabled people is it’s a muddle and a minefield to have an easy pee.
  • (20) 'A tremendous wrench': Sir Ivan Rogers's resignation email in full Read more He wrote: “I hope you will continue to challenge ill-founded arguments and muddled thinking and that you will never be afraid to speak the truth to those in power.