Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Wet, sticky, soft earth, as on the banks of a river.
  • noun Slang Wet plaster, mortar, or cement.
  • noun Slanderous or defamatory charges or comments.
  • transitive verb To cover or spatter with or as if with mud.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Moist and soft earth or earthy matter, whether produced by rains on the earthy surface, by ejections from springs and volcanoes, or by sediment from turbid waters; mire.
  • To fill with mud or soft clay, as the crevices between the logs in a log house.
  • To bury in mud or mire; cover or bedaub with mud.
  • To make turbid or foul with dirt; stir the sediment in (liquors).
  • To go in or under the mud, for refuge or warmth, as does the eel.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Earth and water mixed so as to be soft and adhesive.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a fresh-water fish (Acantharchum pomotis or Acantharchus pomotis) of the Eastern United States. It produces a deep grunting note.
  • noun an immersion of the body, or some part of it, in mud charged with medicinal agents, as a remedy for disease.
  • noun a large flatboat used in dredging.
  • noun See mud cat in the vocabulary.
  • noun (Zoöl.) any one of several American marine crabs of the genus Panopeus.
  • noun (Zoöl.) the winter flounder. See Flounder, and Dab.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a mud wasp; the mud-dauber.
  • noun (Zoöl.) the fellbender.
  • noun (Steam Boilers) a drum beneath a boiler, into which sediment and mud in the water can settle for removal.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a long, slender, aquatic amphibian (Siren lacertina), found in the Southern United States. It has persistent external gills and only the anterior pair of legs. See Siren.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a European frog (Pelobates fuscus).
  • noun (Zoöl.) The clapper rail.
  • noun [Slang] a person who cleans sewers, or delves in mud.
  • noun (Zoöl.) any small American fresh-water fish of the genus Umbra, as Umbra limi. The genus is allied to the pickerels.
  • noun a plug for stopping the mudhole of a boiler.
  • noun (Zoöl.) the menobranchus.
  • noun [U.S.] a heavy scow, used in dredging; a mud boat.
  • noun (Zoöl.) any one of numerous species of fresh-water tortoises of the United States.
  • noun (Zoöl.) any one of numerous species of hymenopterous insects belonging to Pepæus, and allied genera, which construct groups of mud cells, attached, side by side, to stones or to the woodwork of buildings, etc. The female places an egg in each cell, together with spiders or other insects, paralyzed by a sting, to serve as food for the larva. Called also mud dauber.
  • transitive verb rare To bury in mud.
  • transitive verb To make muddy or turbid.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A mixture of water and soil or fine grained sediment.
  • noun A plaster-like mixture used to texture or smooth drywall.
  • noun Wet concrete as it is being mixed, delivered and poured.
  • noun figuratively Willfully abusive, even slanderous remarks or claims, notably between political opponents.
  • noun slang Money, dough, especially when proceeding from dirty business.
  • noun slang stool that is exposed as a result of anal sex
  • noun geology A particle less than 62.5 microns in diameter, following the Wentworth scale
  • verb transitive To make muddy, dirty
  • verb transitive To make turbid
  • verb intransitive, Internet To participate in a MUD, or multi-user dungeon.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb plaster with mud
  • noun slanderous remarks or charges
  • verb soil with mud, muck, or mire
  • noun water soaked soil; soft wet earth

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English mudde, probably from Middle Low German and Middle Dutch modde.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Unattested in Old English; probably cognate with (or perhaps directly borrowed from) Middle Dutch modde, Middle Low German modde, mudde (Low German Mudd), (Dutch modder). Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian mut ("filth, excrement").

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Examples

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  • Also (obs.), an old Dutch and (in later use) South African dry measure of capacity, varying in amount but usually equivalent to about three bushels (approx. 109 litres).

    August 6, 2008

  • Mud, mud, glorious mud!

    Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood!

    So follow me, follow

    Down to the hollow

    And there we will wallow

    In glorious mud.

    - The Hippopotamus Song

    March 20, 2009

  • I *love* the hippopotamus song!

    March 20, 2009

  • "At seven we arrive at the gun position, the guns have gone, and all that is left are the M Truck Signallers who are to reel in the D5 lines.

    'This is it,' said Driver Masters, pulling up in a morass of mud.

    I leap from the vehicle and land knee-deep in it.

    'It's all yours, ' says Masters, and speeds away like a priest from a brothel."

    - Spike Milligan, 'Mussolini: My Part In His Downfall.'

    April 18, 2009