bemuddle

English

Etymology

be- +‎ muddle

Verb

bemuddle (third-person singular simple present bemuddles, present participle bemuddling, simple past and past participle bemuddled)

1. (archaic) to confuse, distort
   • 1822, Charles and Mary Lamb, The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb (Vol. 6)‎^[1]:

     He is swallowed up, body and soul, in law; he eats, drinks, plays (at the card table) Law, nothing but Law. He acts Ignoramus in the play so thoroughly, that you w'd swear that in the inmost marrow of his head (is not this the proper anatomical term?) there have housed themselves not devils but pettifoggers, to bemuddle with their noisy chatter his own and his friends' wits.

   • 1890, John Fiske, Civil Government in the United States Considered with‎^[2]:

     Its educational value is far higher than that of the newspaper, which, in spite of its many merits as a diffuser of information, is very apt to do its best to bemuddle and sophisticate plain facts.

   • 1897, John Fiske, The Discovery of America Vol. 1 (of 2)‎^[3]:

     But some modern sources of information have served at first to bemuddle, and then when more carefully sifted, to clear up the story.

Derived terms

• bemuddlement