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Definition of mud noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

mud

noun
 
/mʌd/
 
/mʌd/
[uncountable]Idioms
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  1. wet earth that is soft and sticky
    • The car wheels got stuck in the mud.
    • Your boots are covered in mud.
    • Heavy rain caused thick, deep mud on the site.
    • mud bricks/huts (= made of dried mud)
    • nests made of mud or clay
    Extra Examples
    • Her boots were caked in mud.
    • Several cars got bogged down in the mud.
    • She fell in the mud.
    • The cars had churned the lane into mud.
    • The mud in the dried-up river bed had cracked.
    • We squelched through the mud.
    • Wet mud oozed up between their toes.
    • footprints left in the hard dried mud
    • pigs wallowing in the mud
    • They live in mud huts with grass roofs.
    Topics Geographyb1
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective
    • deep
    • thick
    • soft
    verb + mud
    • be caked in
    • be caked with
    • be covered with
    mud + verb
    • ooze
    • crack
    mud + noun
    • brick
    • floor
    • house
    preposition
    • in the mud
    • through the mud
    phrases
    • a layer of mud
    • a sea of mud
    See full entry
    Word Originlate Middle English: probably from Middle Low German mudde.
Idioms
(as) clear as mud
  1. (informal, humorous) not clear at all; not easy to understand
    • Oh well, that's all as clear as mud, then.
drag somebody through the mud/dirt | drag somebody's name through the mud/dirt
  1. (informal) to criticize or say bad things about somebody in public, in a way that is unfair
    • The paper has dragged his name through the mud.
    • They feel their agency has been dragged through the mud by the press.
    • Football's good name is being dragged through the dirt.
fling, sling, etc. mud (at somebody)
  1. to criticize somebody or accuse somebody of bad things in order to damage their reputation, especially in politics see also mud-slinging
mud sticks
  1. (saying) people remember and believe the bad things they hear about other people, even if they are later shown to be false
somebody’s name is mud
  1. (informal, usually humorous) used to say that somebody is not liked or popular because of something they have done
    • Your name’s mud around here at the moment!
    • If you tell our secret your name will be mud round here.
see also mudflatSee mud in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee mud in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic English
generic
adjective
 
 
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