muddled

«muddled» in Mova's school dictionary: confused and not thinking clearly — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 4 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective; past form of «muddle» (muddle, muddles, muddled, muddling)

meaning for a pupil

1) Muddled means confused and not thinking clearly. tree →

2) Muddled means mixed up and untidy, in the wrong order. tree →

3) It is the past form of the verb «muddle»: to mix things up or confuse them. tree →

sense in the lessons

In maths, a muddled answer has steps in the wrong order; teachers ask for clear working. In stories, a muddled character is confused, perhaps tired, old or scared. Phrases: «get muddled», «muddled up», «muddled thinking», «muddle through» (manage somehow).

examples

• I got muddled and added instead of taking away. tree →
• The papers were all muddled up on the floor. tree →
• Grandpa gets a bit muddled about names. tree →
• Her story was muddled and hard to follow. tree →
• He muddled the twins up again. tree →
• After the long trip I felt tired and muddled. tree →
• We muddled through the quiz without our best player. tree →
• And the Cat sat down to the loom, and worked away; muddled everything about, if it didn't do much weaving. tree →

note

Verb: muddle, muddled, muddling. Noun: a muddle (a mess or confusion: «in a muddle»). Mostly British; Americans also say «mixed up». Not the same as «muddy» (covered in mud).

In the corpora

• The street was just as muddled.
• The girls got muddled rules too.
• Names can get muddled.
• As the anaesthetic wears off, children may feel sleepy, sick or muddled, and recovery nurses give medicine for sickness or pain.

Trees and pragmatics

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