muck up

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muck

(mŭk)

1. A moist sticky mixture, especially of mud and filth.

2. Moist farmyard dung; manure.

3. Dark fertile soil containing decaying vegetable matter.

4. Something filthy or disgusting.

5. Earth, rocks, or clay excavated in mining.

6. The pile of discarded cards, as in poker: threw his hand into the muck.

v. mucked, muck·ing, mucks

v.tr.

1. To fertilize with manure or compost.

2. To make dirty, especially with muck.

3. To remove muck or dirt from (a mine, for example).

4. To fold (one's hand) in a card game, especially by pushing one's cards away.

v.intr.

To muck one's hand in a card game.

Phrasal Verbs:

muck about Chiefly British

To spend time idly; putter.

muck up Informal

To bungle, damage, or ruin.

[Middle English muk, of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse myki, dung.]

muck′i·ly adv.

muck′y adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

muck up

vb (adverb)

1. (tr) Brit and Austral to ruin or spoil; make a mess of

2. (intr) Austral to misbehave

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Verb	1.	muck up - make a mess of, destroy or ruin; "I botched the dinner and we had to eat out"; "the pianist screwed up the difficult passage in the second movement" bobble, bodge, bollix, bollix up, bollocks, bollocks up, botch, botch up, bumble, bungle, flub, fluff, foul up, fuck up, louse up, mess up, mishandle, ball up, spoil, muff, screw up, fumble, blow go wrong, miscarry, fail - be unsuccessful; "Where do today's public schools fail?"; "The attempt to rescue the hostages failed miserably"
	2.	muck up - soil with mud, muck, or mire; "The child mucked up his shirt while playing ball in the garden" mud, muck, mire begrime, bemire, colly, dirty, grime, soil - make soiled, filthy, or dirty; "don't soil your clothes when you play outside!"

muck

noun

1. A viscous, usually offensively dirty substance:

mire, ooze, slime, slop, sludge, slush.

2. Foul or dirty matter:

dirt, filth, grime.

Slang: crud.

verb

To soil with mud.Also used with up:

bemire, mire, mud, muddy, slush.

phrasal verb
muck up

Informal. To harm irreparably through inept handling; make a mess:

ball up, blunder, boggle, botch, bungle, foul up, fumble, gum up, mess up, mishandle, mismanage, muddle, muff, spoil.

Informal: bollix up.

Slang: blow, goof up, louse up, screw up, snafu.

Idiom: make a muck of.

Translations

vermasseln

sporcare

w>muck up

vt sep (Brit inf)

(= dirty) → dreckig machen (inf); you’ve really mucked up this place → ihr habt hier ja eine (ganz) schöne Schweinerei angerichtet!

(= spoil) → vermasseln (inf); person (emotionally) → verkorksen (inf); that’s really mucked me/my plans up → das hat mir alles/meine Pläne vermasselt (inf)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

References in periodicals archive ?

And some of these dirty lazy dog owners pick the muck up and then leave the bag of muck behind, which is worse.

Dog muck is purely foul

I too am a responsible dog owner and pick my dog's muck up. I have also owned a horse for the past 22 years and have never picked droppings up while out riding.

There's muck and manure

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