muck-up

[ muhk-uhp ]

noun

, Informal.

1. a bungled or disordered situation; foul-up.

muck up

verb

1. tr to ruin or spoil; make a mess of
2. intr to misbehave

Word History and Origins

Origin of muck-up¹

First recorded in 1925–30; noun use of verb phrase muck up

Idioms and Phrases

Bungle, damage, make a mess of, as in Don't let him write the review; he's sure to muck it up . This idiom alludes to the verb muck in the sense of “spread manure on.” [Early 1900s] For a synonym, see foul up .

Example Sentences

But the president’s mishandling of the coronavirus has been not one discrete choice but a rolling, catastrophic muck-up.

From Washington Post

Not even the best picture muck-up during the 2017 Academy Awards could compare to the devastation that the comedian/game show host/relationship advice huckster inflicted upon Columbian contestant and eventual runner-up Ariadna Gutierrez, who saw her life-long dream come true, only for it to be ripped away a few moments later.

From The Guardian

“If it was an alien spacecraft, it was the Brexit of alien spacecraft. It was a complete muck-up,” says Fitzsimmons.

From The Verge

I think the IOC made a complete muck-up of it.

From BBC

“Mayoral leadership is very visible, it’s about walking down the street and somebody saying ‘you’ve made a right muck-up of that’.

From The Guardian

Related Words

• agitate
• alarm
• bewilder
• bother
• confound
• daunt
• disconcert
• discourage
• dishearten
• disillusion
• dispirit
• disquiet
• disturb
• dumbfound
• embarrass
• faze
• flummox
• fluster
• frighten
• horrify