Muddle vs Surprise - What's the difference?

Muddle is a related term of surprise.

As verbs the difference between muddle and surprise

is that muddle is to mix together, to mix up; to confuse while surprise is to cause (someone) to feel unusually alarmed or delighted.

As nouns the difference between muddle and surprise

is that muddle is a mixture; a confusion; a garble while surprise is something not expected.

As an adjective surprise is

unexpected.

muddle

English

Verb

(muddl)

To mix together, to mix up; to confuse.

Young children tend to muddle their words.

To mash slightly for use in a cocktail.

He muddled the mint sprigs in the bottom of the glass.

To dabble in mud.

(Jonathan Swift)

To make turbid or muddy.

* L'Estrange

He did ill to muddle the water.

To think and act in a confused, aimless way.

To cloud or stupefy; to render stupid with liquor; to intoxicate partially.

* Bentley

Their old master Epicurus seems to have had his brains so muddled and confounded with them, that he scarce ever kept in the right way.

* Arbuthnot

often drunk, always muddled

To waste or misuse, as one does who is stupid or intoxicated.

* Hazlitt

They muddle it [money] away without method or object, and without having anything to show for it.

Derived terms

* muddler (agent noun) * muddle along * muddle through * muddle up

Noun

(en noun)

A mixture; a confusion; a garble.

The muddle of nervous speech he uttered did not have much meaning.

Derived terms

* muddle-headed

surprise

English

Alternative forms

* (l) (qualifier)

Noun

(en noun)

Something not expected.

* 2013 , Daniel Taylor, Rickie Lambert’s debut goal gives England victory over Scotland'' (in ''The Guardian , 14 August 2013)[http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/aug/14/england-scotland-international-friendly]

They had begun brightly but the opening goal was such a blow to their confidence it almost came as a surprise when Walcott, running through the inside-right channel, beat the offside trap and, checking back on to his left foot, turned a low shot beyond Allan McGregor in the Scotland goal.

* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=September 7, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC Sport

, title= Moldova 0-5 England , passage=England were graphically illustrating the huge gulf in class between the sides and it was no surprise when Lampard added the second just before the half hour. Steven Gerrard found his Liverpool team-mate Glen Johnson and Lampard arrived in the area with perfect timing to glide a header beyond Namasco.}}

(attributive) Unexpected.

The feeling that something unexpected has happened.

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=20 citation , passage=The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen.

(obsolete) A dish covered with a crust of raised pastry, but with no other contents.

(King)

Synonyms

* unexpected * (feeling) astonishment

Derived terms

* take by surprise

Verb

(surpris)

To cause (someone) to feel unusually alarmed or delighted.

It surprises me that I owe twice as much as I thought I did.

To do something to (a person) that they are not expecting, as a surprise.

He doesn’t know that I’m in the country – I thought I’d turn up at his house and surprise him.

To undergo or witness something unexpected.

He doesn’t surprise easily.

To cause surprise.

To attack unexpectedly.

To take unawares.

Adjective

(-)

Unexpected.

* {{quote-book, year=1913, author=

, title=Lord Stranleigh Abroad , chapter=4 citation , passage=“I came down like a wolf on the fold, didn’t I??? Why didn’t I telephone??? Strategy, my dear boy, strategy. This is a surprise attack, and I’d no wish that the garrison, forewarned, should escape. …”}} 1000 English basic words ----