1. Home
2. Idioms
3. clear as mud

clear as mud

---

---

*clear as mud

 

1. Cliché not clear at all. (*Also: as ~.) Your swimming pool needs cleaning; the water is clear as mud.

2. Cliché not easy to understand. (*Also: as ~.) This physics chapter is clear as mud to me. I did all the reading, but it's still as clear as mud.

See also: clear, mud

(as) clear as mud

very difficult to understand His traffic directions were as clear as mud.

Usage notes: used to humorously explain that there was a problem

Opposite of: (as) plain as day

See also: clear, mud

clear as mud

Murky, obscure, totally unclear, as in The translation of these directions is clear as mud. This ironic phrase always indicates that something is far from clear. [Early 1800s]

See also: clear, mud

clear as mud

verb

See as clear as mud

See also: clear, mud