1. [n]  informal terms for a difficult situation; "he got into a terrible fix"; "he made a muddle of his marriage"
2. [n]  a confused multitude of things
3. [v]  mix up or confuse; "He muddled the issues"
4. [v]  make into a puddle; "puddled mire"

1. \Mud"dle\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Muddled}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Muddling}.] [From {Mud}.]
   1. To make turbid, or muddy, as water. [Obs.]
   
            He did ill to muddle the water.       --L'Estrange.
   
   2. To cloud or stupefy; to render stupid with liquor; to
      intoxicate partially.
   
            Epicurus seems to have had brains so muddled and
            confounded, that he scarce ever kept in the right
            way.                                  --Bentley.
   
            Often drunk, always muddled.          --Arbuthnot.
   
   3. To waste or misuse, as one does who is stupid or
      intoxicated. [R.]
   
            They muddle it [money] away without method or
            object, and without having anything to show for it.
                                                  --Hazlitt.
   
   4. To mix confusedly; to confuse; to make a mess of; as, to
      muddle matters; also, to perplex; to mystify. --F. W.
      Newman.
   
   

2. \Mud"dle\, v. i.
   1. To dabble in mud. [Obs.] --Swift.
   
   2. To think and act in a confused, aimless way.
   
   

3. \Mud"dle\, n.
   A state of being turbid or confused; hence, intellectual
   cloudiness or dullness.
   
         We both grub on in a muddle.             --Dickens.
   
   

Original name of mdl.