muddle through
Syllables: mud·dle through/ˈmʌdl̩ θɹuː/US/ˈmʌd(ə)l θɹu/
muddle through verb: to succeed (often clumsily) despite being ill-equipped or inadequately trained.
Verb
muddle through (third-person singular simple present muddles through, present participle muddling through, simple past and past participle muddled through)
- To succeed (often clumsily) despite being ill-equipped or inadequately trained.
- I’ve only had a few lessons, but I can muddle through the test.
- Someday soon we all will be together / If the fates allow. / Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow. / So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.1943 (date written), “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, in Ralph Blane (lyrics), Hugh Martin (music), Meet Me in St. Louis (soundtrack; 1944), performed by Judy Garland
- Synonyms:
- get along, get by, make do, muddle along, scrape along, scrape by
muddle through meaning in Tamil
muddle through in Tamil
- முயற்சியால் வெற்றியடை
Examples of muddle through in a sentence
- Well one is a little anxious, one is always wary of the unknown, but I have faith somehow I'll muddle through.1984 December 17, Antony Jay, Jonathan Lynn, “Party Games (Yes Minister)”, in Yes Minister, spoken by Humphrey Appleby (Nigel Hawthorne):
- If Labour's senior team thinks that it can just muddle through to the next election without a coherent plan about how to tackle the problems of the industry, it is making a big mistake.2023 March 8, Christian Wolmar, “Labour passes up the chance to deliver a forceful rail policy”, in RAIL, number 978, page 34:
Synonyms of muddle through
Forms of muddle through
| third-person singular present | muddles through |
|---|---|
| present participle | muddling through |
| past participle | muddled through |
| past | muddled through |
Origin of muddle through
From muddle (“to think and act in a confused, aimless way”) + through.
Questions about muddle through
- What does muddle through mean?
- Muddle through means to succeed (often clumsily) despite being ill-equipped or inadequately trained.
- What is muddle through in Tamil?
- Muddle through in Tamil is முயற்சியால் வெற்றியடை. See Muddle through meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use muddle through in a sentence?
- Well one is a little anxious, one is always wary of the unknown, but I have faith somehow I'll muddle through.
- What part of speech is muddle through?
- Muddle through is a verb.
- How do you pronounce muddle through?
- Muddle through is pronounced /ˈmʌdl̩ θɹuː/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of muddle through?
- The past tense of muddle through is muddled through.
Words near muddle through in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: muddle through (page history and authors); muddle through (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-muddle through.wav.
Cite this entry: “muddle through.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/muddle_through. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.