Muddy the Waters

Muddy the Waters

Welcome to English in a Minute!

It’s difficult to see things in muddy water.

To muddy the waters

I really hope Anna and Jonathan are not polluting our waterways.

Let’s find out.

Did you watch the report with that famous basketball player –

the one who was arrested last week?

I did … and I didn’t understand it at all.

He talked about living in poverty, his sick mother, his volunteer work …

He was just trying to muddy the waters.

He doesn’t want us to think about the reason for his arrest that he stole a car.

When you “muddy the waters,” you bring up extra, unrelated information to make something harder to understand.

This expression comes from the act of moving things around at the bottom of a body of water.

You move the earth and the water becomes muddy.

And that’s English in a Minute!