muck up

Học thuật
Thân thiện
Definition
  1. Verb (transitive):
    • To make something dirty, especially with mud, muck, or a similar substance.
    • To ruin, spoil, or make a mess of something; to perform a task very poorly.
Examples of Usage
  • Verb:
    • Be careful not to muck up your new shoes in that muddy field.
    • I completely mucked up the presentation by forgetting my main points.
    • He mucked up the engine when he tried to fix it himself.
Advanced Usage
  • "to muck something up": This separable phrasal verb is commonly used in informal contexts to describe causing failure or disorder.
    • One wrong calculation can muck up the entire experiment.
  • Often used to express frustration with one's own or someone else's mistake.
    • I'm sorry I mucked up your carefully laid plans.
Variants and Related Words
  • Muck (n/verb): As a noun, it means dirt or manure. As a verb, it can mean to handle or deal with something (often or ).
  • Mucky (adj): Covered in or consisting of muck; dirty.
Synonyms
  • Botch: To carry out a task badly or carelessly.
  • Spoil: To diminish or destroy the value or quality of.
  • Ruin: To cause the destruction or downfall of.
  • Bungle: To act or work clumsily and awkwardly.
Related Phrasal Verbs
  • Muck about/around (British informal): To behave in a silly way or waste time.
    • Stop mucking about and get to work!
  • Muck in (British informal): To join in and help with an activity, especially by sharing work.
    • Everyone mucked in to clean up after the party.
Related Idioms
  • Make a muck of something: A less common variant meaning to make a mess of something.
    • He made a right muck of painting the fence.
Verb
  1. soil with mud, muck, or mire
    • The child mucked up his shirt while playing ball in the garden
  2. make a mess of, destroy or ruin
    • I botched the dinner and we had to eat out
    • the pianist screwed up the difficult passage in the second movement

Từ đồng nghĩa

Từ gần giống