muddle over/about• Gerald Ford getting into a muddle about what was and wasn't a Warsaw Pact country.• There was a muddle about his origins, wasn't there?• You can see why it is easy to be muddled aboutcarbohydrate.• Was it muddled over the association between money wage changes and real wage changes?
muddle2 (also muddle up) verb [transitiveT] especially British EnglishBrE
1CONFUSEDto put things in the wrong order 弄乱,弄混
Someone’s muddled up all the papers on my desk.
有人把我桌上的文件全都弄乱了。
The government seems to have lost its way and muddled its priorities.
The twins are so alike that it’s easy to muddle them up.
这对双胞胎看上去太像了,很容易弄混。
Spanish and Italian are very similar and I sometimes get them muddled up.
西班牙语和意大利语很相似,我有时会把它们弄混。
muddle something with something
Be careful not to muddle the files you’ve already worked on with the others.
小心不要把你已经处理过的文件和其他文件弄混了。
3CONFUSEDto confuse someone, especially so that they make a mistake 使困惑;使糊涂
Don’t muddle her with all the extra details at the moment.
现在不要用这么多额外的细节把她搞糊涂了。
Could you just repeat those figures – I’ve got a bit muddled up.
你能重复一下那些数据吗——我有点糊涂了。
4muddle along/onphrasal verbphr vCONTINUE/NOT STOPto continue doing something without having any clear plan or purpose, or without having enough help or support 混日子,得过且过;胡乱地干下去
There’s no point in muddling on in the same old job forever.
老在同一份工作上混下去没意思。
Many of the students complained that they were left to muddle along on their own.
5muddle through (something)phrasal verbphr v especially British EnglishBrESUCCEED IN DOING somethingto succeed in doing something with difficulty, or not in a very satisfactory way 胡乱应付过去
There were some difficult questions but I managed to muddle through.
有几个难缠的问题,但我都支吾过去了。
The team managed to muddle through another season.
该球队又混过了一个赛季。
Examples from the Corpus
muddle through • She just has to muddle through.• While children were very young it was possible to muddle through.• They must muddle through in a fog of grumble and contempt.• You muddle through, reduced to selling your own ads to make a decentbuck.• My own feeling in 1981 was that we should try to achieve something better and that just muddling through was not enough.• Others have muddled through without a policy, although in that situation choices are still forced willy-nilly upon those who selectmaterials.• Like so many other students, he had muddled through without having to break a sweat.
Examples from the Corpus
muddle• Several incidents are clever and revealing, others muddled.• You can see why it is easy to be muddled about carbohydrate.• They muddled around the fringes of true power, never quite brave enough or decisive enough to take the plunge.• I found them to be muddled, frightened, weary.• Passion starts to muddle my thinking.• The lines between re-creations and reality are so muddled that some newsprograms have even used Hollywood films to illustrate news stories.• You muddle through, reduced to selling your own ads to make a decentbuck.• While children were very young it was possible to muddle through.
Originmuddle2
(1500-1600) Probably from early Dutchmoddelen“to make muddy”, from Middle Dutchmodde“mud”