muck

high muckamuck

slang An especially important, influential, and authoritative person, especially someone who is overbearingly or arrogantly so. (Sometimes shortened to simply "muckamuck.") "All hail the high muckamuck," Jerry muttered under his breath as the dictator's motorcade rolled by. We're just waiting for the muckamuck to give us the green light before we get the project started.

See also: high

high muckety-muck

slang An especially important, influential, and authoritative person, especially someone who is overbearingly or arrogantly so. We're just waiting for the muckety-muck to give us the green light before we get the project started. "All hail the high muckety-muck," Jerry muttered under his breath as the dictator's motorcade rolled by.

See also: high

muckety muck

slang An especially important, influential, and authoritative person, especially someone who is overbearingly or arrogantly so. We're just waiting for the muckety muck to give us the green light before we get the project started.

as common as muck

Low-class. Primarily heard in UK, Australia. Considering she's wearing an outfit like that in public, she must be as common as muck.

(lord) high muck-a-muck

Rur. a very important person. (Humorous.) Jim's acting like he's some kind of lord high muck-a-muck. What's gotten into him? Mary got a promotion, so now she's a real high muck-a-muck.

See also: high

muck something up

to ruin something. I should never have trusted Jim with the repair work. He was bound to muck it up. I asked her to take over for me while I was gone, and she really mucked it up. She mucked up the whole deal.

See also: muck, up

muck around (with something)

to do something without a serious purpose Why was she mucking around in such a risky neighborhood? I kept working on this text until I thought it was good, and then I tried not to muck around with it anymore.

muck something up

also muck up something

to make a situation more confusing or difficult Our leaders have demonstrated their great talent for mucking things up. Don't muck up our lives just because he was misbehaving.

Related vocabulary: muddy the waters

See also: muck, up

as common as muck

(British & Australian informal)

an impolite way of describing someone who is from a low social class You can tell from the way she talks she's as common as muck.

Lady Muck

(British & Australian humorous)

a woman who thinks she is very important and should be treated better than everyone else Look at Lady Muck over there, expecting everyone to wait on her!

Where there's muck, there's brass.

(British)

something that you say which means you can make a lot of money from work that most people do not want to do because they think it is dirty or unpleasant Decorating's a messy job, but where there's muck, there's brass.

See treat like muck

muck-raking

(informal)

the activity of trying to discover unpleasant information about people so that you can tell the public These reports are nothing but muck-raking - journalists should not be allowed to investigate ministers' private business dealings.

treat somebody like muck

(informal)

to treat someone without respect or kindness Mick treats his girlfriend like muck, but she's crazy about him.

See handle with kid gloves, work a treat

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.

See also: muck, up

muck around

or muck about

To spend time idly; putter: We spent our summer afternoons mucking around in the fields and ponds. I stayed home and mucked around all day.

muck up

v. Slang

1. To make something dirty or contaminated, especially with mud, grime, or a similar substance: Don't step in that puddle; you'll muck up your shoes. The gears in the car's transmission were all mucked up.

2. To make some liquid unclear or unusable by stirring up elements settled on the bottom: Unfortunately, all the dredging in the river has mucked up the water so much that we can't go swimming. The rains mucked the water up, making it difficult for scuba divers to see.

3. To make something unusable by disrupting what should remain undisturbed: I tried to incorporate these ideas into my paper at the last minute, but all they did was to muck it up. The editor stopped the author from mucking up the book with needless revisions.

See also: muck, up

high mucky-muck

(...ˈməkimək)

n. an important person; the person in charge. When the high mucky-mucks meet, they will decide what to do about the problem.

See also: high

muck something up

tv. to mess something up; to ruin something. Try not to muck it up this time.

See also: muck, up

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Lena	LE-nah (German, Polish, Italian), LYE-nah (Russian), LEE-nə (English)	Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, German, Polish, Russian, English, Italian, Portuguese
Rini	-	Dutch
Jagadisha	-	Hinduism
Birgitta	bir-YIT-tah (Swedish), bir-GIT-tah (Swedish), BEER-geet-tah (Finnish)	Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Finnish
Nando	-	Spanish
Antonia	ahn-TO-nyah (Italian, Spanish), an-TON-ee-ə (English), ahn-TO-nee-ah (German, Dutch), ahn-TAWN-yah (Polish)	Italian, Spanish, English, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, Polish, Romanian, Ancient Roma