▪ I. muddling, vbl. n.
(ˈmʌd(ə)lɪŋ)
[f. muddle v. + -ing1.]
The action of the vb. muddle. Also muddling-along, muddling-through (see muddle v. 6 b).
| 1829 Scott Jrnl. 29 Mar., This muddling among old books has the quality of a sedative. 1873 H. Spencer Stud. Sociol. xi. 289 Those muddlings of provisions and confusions of language in Acts of Parliament. 1949 Koestler Promise & Fulfilment ii. 17 What both Jews and Arabs believed to be a ‘diabolic policy’ was in fact the traditional muddling-along policy. 1955 Times 28 July 3/3 Can it be that..we shall abandon the immemorial practice of muddling through, and discover logic and consistency at last? |
▪ II. muddling, ppl. a.
(ˈmʌd(ə)lɪŋ)
[f. muddle v. + -ing2.]
That muddles.
| a 1732 Gay Fables ii. xiii. 17 How muddling 'tis on books to pore! 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) vi. Stage Coaches v, Finding..at least one muddling mother with a sick—but not silent— infant. 1827 Hone Every-day Bk. II. 388 ‘Sheelah’ is an Irish term,..applied to a slovenly or muddling woman. 1883 Longm. Mag. July 256 Copyholders..are as a rule..more muddling in their ways, than the dependent labourer. |
Hence ˈmuddlingly adv.
| 1830 Lamb Let. to Dyer in Final Mem. xvii. 167 What a power to intoxicate his crude brains, just muddlingly awake to perceive that something is wrong in the social system. |