muck-up

[muhk-uhp] /ˈmʌkˌʌp/
noun, Informal.
1.
a bungled or disordered situation; foul-up.
Origin
1925-30; noun use of verb phrase muck up

muck

[muhk] /mʌk/
noun
1.
moist farmyard dung, decaying vegetable matter, etc.; manure.
2.
a highly organic, dark or black soil, less than 50 percent combustible, often used as a manure.
3.
mire; mud.
4.
filth, dirt, or slime.
5.
defamatory or sullying remarks.
6.
a state of chaos or confusion:
to make a muck of things.
7.
Chiefly British Informal. something of no value; trash.
8.
(especially in mining) earth, rock, or other useless matter to be removed in order to get out the mineral or other substances sought.
verb (used with object)
9.
to manure.
10.
to make dirty; soil.
11.
to remove muck from (sometimes followed by out).
12.
Informal.
  1. to ruin; bungle (often followed by up).
  2. to put into a state of complete confusion (often followed by up).
Verb phrases
13.
muck about/around, Informal. to idle; waste time; loiter.
Origin
1200-50; Middle English muc, muk < Old Norse myki cow dung
British Dictionary definitions for muck up

muck up

verb (adverb) (informal)
1.
(transitive) (Brit & Austral) to ruin or spoil; make a mess of
2.
(intransitive) (Austral) to misbehave

muck

/mʌk/
noun
1.
farmyard dung or decaying vegetable matter
2.
Also called muck soil. an organic soil rich in humus and used as a fertilizer
3.
dirt or filth
4.
earth, rock material, etc, removed during mining excavations
5.
(slang, mainly Brit) rubbish
6.
See Lord Muck, Lady Muck
7.
(slang, mainly Brit) make a muck of, to ruin or spoil
verb (transitive)
8.
to spread manure upon (fields, gardens, etc)
9.
to soil or pollute
10.
(often foll by out) to clear muck from
See also muck about, muck in, muck up
Word Origin
C13: probably of Scandinavian origin; compare Old Norse myki dung, Norwegian myk
Word Origin and History for muck up

muck

n.

mid-13c., "cow dung and vegetable matter spread as manure," from a Scandinavian source, cf. 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.

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.

Slang definitions & phrases for muck up

muck up

verb phrase

To damage; ruin; fuck up: And let's not muck up our public spaces before we find the answers/ Mucking up the enterprise are fatuous passages about smugglers, espionage, and computers

[a euphemism for fuck up, probably influenced by mid-1800s mucks, ''disarrange, discompose, make a muddle,'' fr British dialect muxen, ''make filthy'']


muck

noun

high muckety-muck: Always used with big, high, etc: the way some of these big mucks do


Idioms and Phrases with muck up

muck up

Bungle, damage, make a mess of, as in Don't let him write the review; he's sure to muck it up. This idiom alludes to the verb muck in the sense of “spread manure on.” [ Early 1900s ]
For a synonym, see foul up