different between muddle vs astonish

English

Etymology

From Middle Dutch moddelen (“to make muddy”), from modde, mod (“mud”) (Modern Dutch modder). Compare German Kuddelmuddel.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?d?l/
• Rhymes: -?d?l

Verb

muddle (third-person singular simple present muddles, present participle muddling, simple past and past participle muddled)

1. To mix together, to mix up; to confuse.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of F. W. Newman to this entry?)

2. To mash slightly for use in a cocktail.

3. To dabble in mud.
   • c. 1721-1722, Jonathan Swift, The Progress of Marriage

     Young ducklings foster'd by a hen;
     But, when let out, they run and muddle

4. To make turbid or muddy.
5. To think and act in a confused, aimless way.
6. To cloud or stupefy; to render stupid with liquor; to intoxicate partially.
   • 1692, Richard Bentley, A Confutation of Atheism

     Their old master Epicurus seems to have had his brains so muddled and confounded with them, that he scarce ever kept in the right way.

   • 1712, John Arbuthnot, The History of John Bull

     often drunk, always muddled

7. To waste or misuse, as one does who is stupid or intoxicated.
   • 1821, William Hazlitt, On the Want of Money

     They muddle it [money] away without method or object, and without having anything to show for it.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

muddle (plural muddles)

1. A mixture; a confusion; a garble.

2. (cooking and cocktails) A mixture of crushed ingredients, as prepared with a muddler.

Translations

Derived terms

• muddle-headed

English

Etymology

From an alteration (due to words ending in -ish: abolish, banish, cherish, establish, furnish, etc.) of earlier astony, astone, aston, astun (“to astonish, confound, stun”), from Middle English astonien, astunien, astonen, astunen, astounen (“to astound, stun, astonish”), of uncertain origin, possibly from Old English *?stunian, from ?- (perfective prefix) + stunian (“to make a loud sound, crash, resound, roar, bang, dash, impinge, knock, confound, astonish, stupefy”), from Proto-Germanic *stun?n? (“to sound, crash, bang, groan”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ten-, *(s)ton- (“to thunder, roar, groan”), equivalent to a- +? stun. Compare German erstaunen (“to astonish, amaze”). Another possible source, or else influence, is Old French estoner, estuner, estonuer, estonner (“to stun”), either from an assumed Vulgar Latin *extonare (“to strike with thunder, daze, stupefy, stun”) from Late Latin *extono (ex +? tono), or from Old Frankish *stunen (“to stun”), related to Middle High German stunen (“to knock, strike, stun”) and then, if not the source, still a cognate of the word astonish.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??st?n??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??st?n??/
• Hyphenation: as?ton?ish

Verb

astonish (third-person singular simple present astonishes, present participle astonishing, simple past and past participle astonished)

1. To surprise greatly.
   • 1813, Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice:

     "I have no right to give my opinion," said Wickham, "as to his being agreeable or otherwise. I am not qualified to form one. I have known him too long and too well to be a fair judge. It is impossible for me to be impartial. But I believe your opinion of him would in general astonish — and perhaps you would not express it quite so strongly anywhere else. Here you are in your own family."

Synonyms

• (to surprise): astound, flabbergast, surprise

Derived terms

Translations