turbid, a.
(ˈtɜːbɪd)
[ad. L. turbid-us full of confusion or disorder; troubled, muddy; perplexed, violent, etc.; f. turba crowd, disturbance.]
1. Of liquid: Thick or opaque with suspended matter; not clear; cloudy, muddy.
| 1626 Bacon Sylva §306 Though the Lees doe make the Liquour turbide, yet they refine the Spirits. a 1701 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 4 It's Waters are turbid and very unwholesome. 1800 tr. Lagrange's Chem. II. 375 At the end of some time this water becomes turbid, putrifies, and emits an ammoniacal odour. 1896 Q. Rev. Apr. 498 Gases..acted upon them [the X rays] as turbid media, stopping them by vague diffusion, as milky water stops light. |
b. Of air, smoke, clouds, etc.: Thick, dense; dark.
| 1705 J. Philips Blenheim 145 Horrible Flames, and turbid streaming Clouds Of Smoak sulphureous. 1807 J. Barlow Columb. iii. 21 The nations, temper'd to the turbid air, Breathe deadly strife. 1811 Pinkerton Petralogy II. 330 The sun rose above the horizon, turbid at first and dimmed by mists. 1829 Chapters Phys. Sc. 267 Whether the sky be clear and serene, or cloudy and turbid, whether it snows or rains. a 1831 A. Knox Rem. I. 7 Turbid wreaths, Sullying joy's gilded ceilings. |
c. fig. or in figurative language.
| 1752 Warburton Serm. 1 John iv. 20 Wks. 1788 V. 45 Benevolence, arising from this source, at first runs thick and turbid. 1800 Wellesley in Owen Desp. (1877) 732 It is not the nature of these inestimable blessings to spring from a turbid source. 1810 Crabbe Borough xxiii. 144 Each feature in the face, Pinched through neglect or turbid by disgrace. 1876 Merivale Rom. Triumvirates vi. 121 The readers and thinkers of the day..withdrew more and more from the turbid sphere of political action. |
2. fig. Characterized by or producing confusion or obscurity of thought, feeling, etc.; mentally confused, perplexed, muddled; disturbed, troubled.
| c 1645 Howell Lett. (1650) II. xxx. 44, I had divers fits of melancholy, and such turbid intervalls that use to attend close prisoners, who for the most part have no other companions, but confus'd troops of wandring cogitations. 1663 Cowley Ess. in Verse & Prose, Of Greatness, Senecio was a man of a turbid and confused wit. 1684 Howe Redeemer's Tears Wks. 1862 II. 316 No grief, sorrow or sighing, which are all fled away; as there can be no other turbid passion of anykind. a 1688 Cudworth Immut. Mor. (1731) 90 The Perceptions of which..are confused, indistinct, turbid and encumbered Cogitations. 1744 Harris Three Treat. iii. ii. (1765) 245 This turbid, this fickle, fleeting Period. 1820 Byron Mar. Fal. ii. i. 487 Your sleep for many nights has been so turbid. 1839 Stonehouse Axholme 207 Wesley's mind seems at this time to have been in a turbid and restless state. 1866 Geo. Eliot F. Holt xxx, A grimy man in a flannel shirt, hatless and with turbid red hair. 1896 Edin. Rev. Apr. 332 The turbid utterances and twisted language of Carlyle. |
3. Comb., as turbid-looking.
| 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VI. 911 The latter membrane is turbid-looking and thickened. |