What's the difference between mud and muddle?

Mud


Definition:

  • (n.) Earth and water mixed so as to be soft and adhesive.
  • (v. t.) To bury in mud.
  • (v. t.) To make muddy or turbid.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Photograph: Dan Chung Around 220,000 live in this mud-brick labyrinth; some homes date back five centuries.
  • (2) The possible occupational cause of the disease, as more solvents in the mud have the structure of aromatic hydrocarbons is discussed.
  • (3) The streets of Jiegu are now littered with concrete remnants of modern structures and the flattened mud and painted wood of traditional Tibetan buildings.
  • (4) This anterior-like cell preparation contained approximately 80% neutral red-stained cells, none of which carried a surface antigen specific to prespore cells (MUD-1 antigen).
  • (5) vittatus eggs laid on damp mud were placed in dry rockpools for 10 weeks and kept dry for a further 6 weeks in the laboratory.
  • (6) Hyflosupercel, Kaolin, and marine mud increased the stability of the enzyme.
  • (7) Evidence is presented that there is an association between tropical ulcer and exposure to mud or slow moving fresh water.
  • (8) A Mud(Ap, lac) prophage has been shown to be inserted into the ptsH gene of E. coli.
  • (9) As BHP’s share price in Australia pushed near 10-year lows on Thursday, the government in Brasilia has become increasingly concerned over the rising death toll and contaminated mud flowing through two states as a result of the disaster.
  • (10) Many of Long’s pieces are fragile and fleeting: a stripe of un-mown grass in an otherwise close cropped lawn at the Henry Moore foundation , a misty circle in Scotland that lasted only until the day warmed up, a stripe of green grass left by plucking daisies, or paintings in wet mud that dry out and crumble.
  • (11) However, the inhabitants of Babaji showed little interest in meeting the British, with compound after mud-walled compound abandoned.
  • (12) Spending time with the baby elephants was very special; the best bit was watching them have a mud bath and occasionally joining in!
  • (13) Diluted elements of his style were all over the pop charts: Sweet, Mud, Alvin Stardust.
  • (14) Here's more details and reaction: Marco Incerti (@MarcoInBxl) #Berlusconi more than 50 trials.. blabla... etc, judges have drawn my name in the mud, took up my time, my patience, huge economic resources September 18, 2013 Marco Incerti (@MarcoInBxl) #Berlusconi , ridicolous sentence to 4 years, for tax evasion that I didn't commit, and even if I did would be minor.
  • (15) The risk of getting malaria was greater for inhabitants of the poorest type of house construction (incomplete, mud, or cadjan (palm) walls, and cadjan thatched roofs) compared to houses with complete brick and plaster walls and tiled roofs.
  • (16) He wrote: “The NHS in Wales will not be the victim of any Conservative party ploy to drag its reputation through the mud for entirely partisan political purposes.
  • (17) Finally, induced Mud-P22 insertions package more than 100 kb of genomic DNA adjacent to one side of the insertion.
  • (18) It was a successful breeding season for avocets - black and white wading birds - at Orford Ness in Suffolk, despite a lack of mud for feeding.
  • (19) Join a guided mud walk from the mainland to one of the islands off the coast.
  • (20) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sisters play in the mud after rare rain at a town camp on the outskirts of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.

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.