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mud.

A mixture of water and soil or fine grained sediment.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/mʌd//mʊd/Northern-England
  1. A mixture of water and soil or fine grained sediment.

    countable · uncountable
  2. A plaster-like mixture used to texture or smooth drywall.

    countable · uncountable
  3. Wet concrete as it is being mixed, delivered and poured.

    countable · slang · uncountable
  4. Willfully abusive, even slanderous remarks or claims, notably between political opponents.

    countable · figuratively · uncountable
    The campaign issues got lost in all the mud from both parties.
  5. Money, dough, especially when proceeding from dirty business.

    countable · slang · uncountable
  6. Stool that is exposed as a result of anal sex.

    countable · uncountable
  7. A particle less than 62.5 microns in diameter, following the Wentworth scale

    countable · uncountable
  8. A black person.

    countable · derogatory · ethnic · slang · slur · uncountable
  9. Drilling fluid.

    countable · uncountable
  10. Coffee.

    countable · slang · uncountable
  11. Opium.

    countable · slang · uncountable
  12. Heroin.

    countable · slang · uncountable
  13. Lean.

    US · countable · slang · uncountable
  14. real property in English Land Law

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English mud, mudde, mode, probably a borrowing from Middle Dutch mod, modde or Middle Low German mudde, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *mud-, *mudra- (“mud”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *mū-, *mew- (“moist”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Mudde (“mud”), Middle High German mot (“mud”), Swedish modd (“slush”). Compare also suffixed variants English mother (“vinegar-forming sediment in alcohol”), West Frisian modder (“mud”), Dutch modder (“mud”), German Low German Mudder (“mud”), German Moder (“moldiness, mildew, decay”), Danish mudder (“mud”). Alternative etymology suggests the Proto-Germanic word is possibly borrowed from a Uralic language (compare e.g. Finnish muta (“mud”), Northern Sami mođđi (“mud”), Erzya мода (moda, “earth, ground”) from Proto-Uralic *muďa (“earth”)).

verb/mʌd//mʊd/Northern-England
  1. To make muddy or dirty; to apply mud to (something).

    transitive
  2. To make turbid.

    transitive
  3. To go under the mud, as an eel does.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English mud, mudde, mode, probably a borrowing from Middle Dutch mod, modde or Middle Low German mudde, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *mud-, *mudra- (“mud”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *mū-, *mew- (“moist”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Mudde (“mud”), Middle High German mot (“mud”), Swedish modd (“slush”). Compare also suffixed variants English mother (“vinegar-forming sediment in alcohol”), West Frisian modder (“mud”), Dutch modder (“mud”), German Low German Mudder (“mud”), German Moder (“moldiness, mildew, decay”), Danish mudder (“mud”). Alternative etymology suggests the Proto-Germanic word is possibly borrowed from a Uralic language (compare e.g. Finnish muta (“mud”), Northern Sami mođđi (“mud”), Erzya мода (moda, “earth, ground”) from Proto-Uralic *muďa (“earth”)).

noun/mʌd//mʊd/Northern-England
  1. A traditional Dutch unit of dry measure of variable size, frequently about 3 bushels.

    historical
  2. A traditional Dutch unit of land area, vaguely reckoned as the amount of land required to sow a mud of seed.

    historical
  3. A kind of box traditionally used in the Netherlands for measuring muds.

    historical
Where this word comes from

From Dutch mud, from West Germanic, from Latin modius. Doublet of modius and muid.

verb/mʌd//mʊd/Northern-England
  1. To participate in a MUD or multi-user dungeon.

    Internet · intransitive
Where this word comes from

From MUD.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.