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.