Dictionary

muddlement en · NOUN

Etymology

From muddle + -ment.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The state of being muddled or the act of muddling; confusion; disorganization.
   • You may heap muddlement upon muddlement; and, with a free people, though much mischief is done and much good prevented, still they work on steadily , each man in his private capacity doing something to retrieve the effects of bad or of indolent government. 1859, Arthur Helps, Friends in Council - Volume 4, page 181:
   • At best, words are fumbled but somewhat redeemed with an accepted frustration and shrugs, and at worst, phrases, punctuated with grimaced muddlements, simply fail. 2016, Joseph Michael Sepesy, Word Dances III: Celebration:
   • I am lost in my own muddlement; and whereabouts the right place is, and how I am to get myself back into it, as I am a living sinner is more than I know! 1857, Wilkie Collins, The Dead Secret - Volume 2, page 216:
   • The Opposition was charging the Government with muddlement and with mismanagement. 1967, New Zealand. Parliament. House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates, page 1328:
   • I have stated that some of our protestant writers are muddled. I begin with one who is muddlement and nothing else; muddlement not merely by nature but by choice; muddlement as a religion, a philosophy, and an ethical code. 1927, Money Writes!, page 119:

Forms