muddy the waters

Idioms and Phrases

Confuse the issue, as in Bringing up one irrelevant fact after another, he succeeded in muddying the waters . This metaphoric expression, alluding to making a pond or stream turbid by stirring up mud from the bottom, was first recorded in 1837.

Related Words

• belie
• blind
• block out
• blur
• camouflage
• cloud
• confuse
• cover
• cover up
• darken
• dim
• disguise
• eclipse
• mask
• misrepresent
• muddy
• overshadow
• shroud
• veil