"muddy the waters" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "muddies the waters",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "muddying the waters",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "muddied the waters",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "muddied the waters",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "muddy the waters (third-person singular simple present muddies the waters, present participle muddying the waters, simple past and past participle muddied the waters)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Alternative form: muddy the water"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004 March 12, Giles Tremlett, “The clues that point towards al-Qaida”, in The Guardian, →ISSN",
          "text": "He insisted that the Basque separatist group Eta remained the main line of investigation, and suggested the tape may have been an attempt to muddy the waters.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018 November 4, John Crace, “Marr founders on the Rocks of Arron Banks's muddy waters”, in The Guardian, →ISSN",
          "text": "“Thank you for having me on,” Banks began. The one statement he made that sounded genuinely credible. It’s not often that someone accused of electoral fraud gets to muddy the waters on live television ahead of a possible criminal investigation.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To make something unclear and difficult to understand."
      ],
      "id": "en-muddy_the_waters-en-verb-IFf1P4Df",
      "links": [
        [
          "unclear",
          "unclear"
        ],
        [
          "difficult",
          "difficult"
        ],
        [
          "understand",
          "understand"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To make something unclear and difficult to understand."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "To make something unclear and difficult to understand",
          "word": "攪渾水"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "jiǎo húnshuǐ",
          "sense": "To make something unclear and difficult to understand",
          "word": "搅浑水"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "To make something unclear and difficult to understand",
          "word": "sotkea asiaa"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "To make something unclear and difficult to understand",
          "word": "hämmentää"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "To make something unclear and difficult to understand",
          "word": "noyer le poisson"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "To make something unclear and difficult to understand",
          "word": "brouiller les pistes"
        },
        {
          "code": "el",
          "lang": "Greek",
          "roman": "tholóno ta nerá",
          "sense": "To make something unclear and difficult to understand",
          "word": "θολώνω τα νερά"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "To make something unclear and difficult to understand",
          "word": "intorbidare le acque"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "To make something unclear and difficult to understand",
          "word": "confondere le acque"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "To make something unclear and difficult to understand",
          "word": "zaciemniać obraz"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "mutítʹ vódu",
          "sense": "To make something unclear and difficult to understand",
          "tags": [
            "imperfective"
          ],
          "word": "мути́ть во́ду"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "muddy the waters"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "muddies the waters",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "muddying the waters",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "muddied the waters",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "muddied the waters",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "muddy the waters (third-person singular simple present muddies the waters, present participle muddying the waters, simple past and past participle muddied the waters)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Alternative form: muddy the water"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004 March 12, Giles Tremlett, “The clues that point towards al-Qaida”, in The Guardian, →ISSN",
          "text": "He insisted that the Basque separatist group Eta remained the main line of investigation, and suggested the tape may have been an attempt to muddy the waters.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018 November 4, John Crace, “Marr founders on the Rocks of Arron Banks's muddy waters”, in The Guardian, →ISSN",
          "text": "“Thank you for having me on,” Banks began. The one statement he made that sounded genuinely credible. It’s not often that someone accused of electoral fraud gets to muddy the waters on live television ahead of a possible criminal investigation.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To make something unclear and difficult to understand."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "unclear",
          "unclear"
        ],
        [
          "difficult",
          "difficult"
        ],
        [
          "understand",
          "understand"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To make something unclear and difficult to understand."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "To make something unclear and difficult to understand",
      "word": "攪渾水"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "jiǎo húnshuǐ",
      "sense": "To make something unclear and difficult to understand",
      "word": "搅浑水"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "To make something unclear and difficult to understand",
      "word": "sotkea asiaa"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "To make something unclear and difficult to understand",
      "word": "hämmentää"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "To make something unclear and difficult to understand",
      "word": "noyer le poisson"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "To make something unclear and difficult to understand",
      "word": "brouiller les pistes"
    },
    {
      "code": "el",
      "lang": "Greek",
      "roman": "tholóno ta nerá",
      "sense": "To make something unclear and difficult to understand",
      "word": "θολώνω τα νερά"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "To make something unclear and difficult to understand",
      "word": "intorbidare le acque"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "To make something unclear and difficult to understand",
      "word": "confondere le acque"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "To make something unclear and difficult to understand",
      "word": "zaciemniać obraz"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "mutítʹ vódu",
      "sense": "To make something unclear and difficult to understand",
      "tags": [
        "imperfective"
      ],
      "word": "мути́ть во́ду"
    }
  ],
  "word": "muddy the waters"
}