What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Soil vs Muddy - What's the difference?

soil | muddy | Related terms |

In transitive terms the difference between soil and muddy

is that soil is to make dirty while muddy is to make a mess of, or create confusion with regard to; to muddle.

As a noun soil

is a mixture of sand and organic material, used to support plant growth.

As an adjective muddy is

covered with or full of mud or wet soil.

soil

English

(wikipedia soil)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (m), (m), . See also (l), (l).

Noun

  • (uncountable) A mixture of sand and organic material, used to support plant growth.
  • (uncountable) The unconsolidated mineral or organic material on the immediate surface of the earth that serves as a natural medium for the growth of land plants.
  • (uncountable) The unconsolidated mineral or organic matter on the surface of the earth that has been subjected to and shows effects of genetic and environmental factors of: climate (including water and temperature effects), and macro- and microorganisms, conditioned by relief, acting on parent material over a period of time. A product-soil differs from the material from which it is derived in many physical, chemical, biological, and morphological properties and characteristics.
  • Country or territory.
    • The refugees returned to their native soil .
  • That which soils or pollutes; a stain.
  • * Dryden
    • A lady's honour will not bear a soil .
  • A marshy or miry place to which a hunted boar resorts for refuge; hence, a wet place, stream, or tract of water, sought for by other game, as deer.
  • * Marston
    • As deer, being stuck, fly through many soils , / Yet still the shaft sticks fast.
  • Dung; compost; manure.
    • night soil
  • * Mortimer
    • Improve land by dung and other sort of soils .
    Synonyms
    * dirt (US) , earth
    Derived terms
    * home soil * native soil * soilless * soil pipe * topsoil
    Related terms
    * solum
    See also
    *

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), (m), .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make dirty.
  • * Milton
    • Our wonted ornaments now soiled and stained.
  • To become dirty or soiled.
    • Light colours soil sooner than dark ones.
  • (figurative) To stain or mar, as with infamy or disgrace; to tarnish; to sully.
    • (Shakespeare)
  • (reflexive) To dirty one's clothing by accidentally defecating while clothed.
  • To make invalid, to ruin.
  • To enrich with soil or muck; to manure.
  • * South
    • Men soil their ground, not that they love the dirt, but that they expect a crop.
    Synonyms
    * (to make dirty) smirch, besmirch, dirty
    Derived terms
    * soil oneself

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (uncountable, euphemistic) Faeces or urine etc. when found on clothes.
  • (countable, medicine) A bag containing soiled items.
    • Synonyms
    * dirt

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) (m), .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A wet or marshy place in which a boar or other such game seeks refuge when hunted.

    • Etymology 4

    (etyl) saoler, .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To feed, as cattle or horses, in the barn or an enclosure, with fresh grass or green food cut for them, instead of sending them out to pasture; hence (such food having the effect of purging them), to purge by feeding on green food.
    • to soil a horse
    (Webster 1913)

    Anagrams

    * (l), (l), (l) ----

    muddy

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Covered with or full of mud or wet soil.
    • He slogged across the muddy field.
    Take off your muddy boots before you come inside.
  • With mud or other sediment brought into suspension, turbid.
    • The previously limpid water was now muddy as a result of the epic struggle.
  • Not clear; mixed up or blurry.
    • The picture is decent, but the sound is muddy.
  • Confused; stupid; incoherent; vague.
  • * Burke
    • cold hearts and muddy understandings
  • * Shakespeare
    • dost think I am so muddy , so unsettled
  • (euphemistic) Soiled with feces.

    • Verb

  • To get mud on (something).
    • If you muddy your shoes don't wear them inside.
  • To make a mess of, or create confusion with regard to; to muddle.
    • The discussion only muddied their understanding of the subject.
  • * 2014 , Steve Rose, " Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: a primate scream - first look review", The Guardian , 1 July 2014:
    • As the humans establish tentative bonds with their evolutionary cousins, the inter-species waters start to muddy .