muck
pronunciation
How to pronounce muck in British English:
UK [mʌk]
How to pronounce muck in American English:
US [mʌk]
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- Noun:
- any thick messy substance
- fecal matter of animals
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- Verb:
- remove muck, clear away muck, as in a mine
- spread manure, as for fertilization
- soil with mud, muck, or mire
Word Origin
- muck
- muck: [13] The original meaning of muck is ‘excrement’; the more general ‘dirt’ is a 14thcentury development. It goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *muk-, *meuk- ‘soft’. This was also the source of Danish møg ‘dung’ (which provides the first syllable of midden [14], a borrowing from the ancestor of Danish mødding, literally ‘dung-heap’). The same Germanic base lies behind English meek [12], whose immediate Old Norse antecedent mjúkr meant ‘soft, pliant’ – leading on in due course to English ‘submissive’.=> meek, midden
- muck (n.)
- mid-13c., "cow dung and vegetable matter spread as manure," from a Scandinavian source such as Old Norse myki, mykr "cow dung," Danish møg; from Proto-Germanic *muk-, *meuk- "soft." Meaning "unclean matter generally" is from c. 1300. Muck-sweat first attested 1690s.
- muck (v.)
- late 14c., "to dig in the ground," also "to remove manure," early 15c., "to spread manure, cover with muck," from muck (n.). Meaning "to make dirty" is from 1832; in the figurative sense, "to make a mess of," it is from 1886; to muck about "mess around" is from 1856. Related: Mucked; mucking.
Example
- 1. Gregory galant 's the ceo of muck rack , the social network for journalists and companies in the news .
- 2. This man on a truck full of muck stopped and called the authorities .
- 3. This summer , before the muck had even been cleared from neighborhoods in the heart of the midwest , the question resurfaced : what happened ?
- 4. Brewers are hoping that , as incomes continue to rise in india and china , drinkers will abandon moonshine , tea and other poisonous muck , and upgrade to premium beer .
- 5. Wherever there was a canal , people hurled themselves into the water ; in shallow places , people waited , half sunk in noxious muck , mouths just above the surface of the water .