View synonyms for

muddy the waters

Discover More

Idioms and Phrases

Confuse the issue, as in Bringing up one irrelevant fact after another, he succeeded in muddying the waters . This metaphoric expression, alluding to making a pond or stream turbid by stirring up mud from the bottom, was first recorded in 1837.

Discover More

Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Asked if Africa had a good case to provide the next Pope based on the Church's growth on the continent, he said he felt the Pope shouldn't be chosen based on statistics, because "those types of considerations tend to muddy the waters".

From

A person's actions, however, can often have some plausible ambiguity that bad faith actors can exploit to muddy the waters.

From

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been known to use administrative warrants to muddy the waters around Fourth Amendment protections.

From

But mostly, Melania Trump and Pam Bondi are working overtime to muddy the waters over where the Trump administration stands on the issue of sexual violence.

From

No need to muddy the waters, no need to create alternative facts.

From

Related Words

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

muddy mud eel

Browse