muck

«muck» in Mova's school dictionary: dirt, mud or something wet and dirty — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (muck, uncountable); verb (muck, mucks, mucked, mucking)

meaning for a pupil

1) Muck is dirt, mud or something wet and dirty. tree →

2) Muck is animal dung (poo), often spread on fields as manure. tree →

3) (UK, informal) Muck about/around means to behave in a silly way and waste time. tree →

4) (UK, informal) Muck up means to spoil or do something badly; muck in means to help with the work; muck out means to clean an animal's stable. tree →

sense in the lessons

On farms and in nature: muck in the farmyard, mucking out the pony. At home: «Take off your boots, they're covered in muck!» In school (UK): «Stop mucking about!» It is an informal, everyday word.

examples

• Your trainers are covered in muck! tree →
• The farmer spread muck on the field. tree →
• We took turns to muck out the stables. tree →
• Stop mucking about and finish your work. tree →
• I mucked up my spelling test. tree →
• Everyone mucked in to tidy the hall after the party. tree →
• Wipe the muck off the window. tree →
• There you will find a sorry colt rolling in the muck. tree →

note

Informal, mostly UK and Ireland. Uncountable: «some muck». Adjective: mucky (dirty). Phrasal verbs with about/around/up/in/out each have their own meaning. Not rude, just casual.

In the corpora

• So nothing is wasted: summer grass becomes winter food, winter muck becomes spring fertiliser, and the next year starts again.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «muck» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.