muddy the waters (redirected from muddy)

muddy the waters

to make a situation more confused and less easy to understand or deal with. The statistics you quoted didn't prove anything, they simply muddied the waters.

See also: Waters

---

---

muddy the waters

to make a situation more confusing. He's just trying to muddy the waters so we won't notice all the bad things he's done.

Usage notes: sometimes used with a modifier: The controversy has muddied the social waters of communities throughout this region.

muck something up

See also: Waters