muddle

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
muddle/ˈmʌdl/

▶verb

• 1 bring into a disordered or confusing state.

  ■ (muddle something up) confuse two or more things with each other.

• 2 confuse (a person).

• 3 (muddle through (or Brit. along)) cope more or less satisfactorily.

• 4 US mix (a drink) or stir (an ingredient) into a drink.

▶noun a muddled state.

– derivatives
muddled adjective,
muddler noun,
muddling adjective,
muddlingly adverb,
muddly adjective.

– origin ME (in the sense ‘wallow in mud’): perh. from MDu. moddelen, frequentative of modden ‘dabble in mud’; cf. mud.