as in fumbled
to make or do (something) in a clumsy or unskillful way
I swear, she mucks up everything she tries
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Recent Examples of mucked up
Well, the first and third mucked up their stories with some overly contrived lore about cults and gods, and the fourth was an experiment for the formula that didn’t quite work.
—
Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 23 Jan. 2026
Lawmakers need to get back to Washington to end the government shutdown - a shutdown that has mucked up travel plans around the country by contributing to widespread flight delays.
—Zachary Schermele, USA Today, 11 Nov. 2025
Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 23 Jan. 2026
Lawmakers need to get back to Washington to end the government shutdown - a shutdown that has mucked up travel plans around the country by contributing to widespread flight delays.
—Zachary Schermele, USA Today, 11 Nov. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mucked up
Verb
-
Cornell fumbled with Mercader’s clothing, trying to find them.—
Josh Ireland,
Harpers Magazine,
24 Feb. 2026
-
When Kahn fumbled Rivaldo’s shot from the edge of the box, Ronaldo was on hand to convert the rebound.—
Michael Cox,
New York Times,
15 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
That might be kind of screwed up.—
Patrick Saunders,
Denver Post,
21 Feb. 2026
-
That seems like our priorities are screwed up.—
Terry Gross,
NPR,
19 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Evans blew a layup and the Gauchos capped their 12-0 surge with a drive by Smith for a 41-37 lead.—
Dan Arritt,
Oc Register,
1 Mar. 2026
-
The Knicks blew the game open with a 19-point run.—
Kristian Winfield,
Hartford Courant,
1 Mar. 2026
Verb
-
The girl in that story had her life ruined two decades ago.—
Amy Wallace,
Mercury News,
25 Feb. 2026
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Trump suggested that Democrats ruined the economy and drove up costs for Americans.—
Kevin Rector,
Los Angeles Times,
25 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Karaban almost had a costly turnover on an inbound play with 14 seconds left, but the Huskies fouled up three and Mulready split his free throw attempts, setting up the game-clinching freebies from the Huskies’ captain.—
Joe Arruda,
Hartford Courant,
15 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Since then, three of his friends — fellow South African farmers — were murdered on their farms nearby.—
Michael H Gavshon,
CBS News,
23 Feb. 2026
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Seven months later, Edward Zachariah, the brother of current senior Gabriel Zachariah, was murdered.—
Charles Baggarly,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
23 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Regardless, some of today’s foremost directors are channeling the days before bingeing applied to content, before art was dubbed content — back when all audiences needed was slo-mo running on a beach.—
Jami Ganz,
New York Daily News,
28 Feb. 2026
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And Paramount’s desire to buy WBD’s linear cable channels derailed the plan that was in the works to spin them off into a standalone company dubbed Discovery Global.—
Brent Lang,
Variety,
27 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Mucked up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mucked%20up. Accessed 3 Mar. 2026.
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