murky

• mirky

From Middle English mirky. Related to Old Norse myrkr, Russian мрак (mrak), Serbo-Croatian мра̑к. By surface analysis, murk +‎ -y.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɜː(ɹ)ki/

• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)ki

murky (comparative murkier, superlative murkiest)

1. Hard to see through, as a fog or mist.
   • 1837, “Boz” [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], “The Streets by Night”, in Sketches by Boz: Illustrative of Every-day Life, and Every-day People. The Second Series, London: John Macrone, […], →OCLC, page 19:

     The Streets of London, to be beheld in the very height of their glory, should be seen on a dark, dull, murky, winter's night, when there is just enough damp gently stealing down to make the pavement greasy without cleansing it of any of its impurities, […]

2. Dark, dim, gloomy.
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 14:

     Ferdinand: As I hope / For quite dayes, faire Iſſue, and long life, / With ſuch loue, as 'tis now the murkieſt den, / The moſt opportune place, the ſtrongſt ſuggeſtion, / Our worſer Genius can, shall neuer melt / Mine honor into luſt, […]

3. Cloudy, indistinct, obscure.

   murky waters

   murky territory

   • 1849 June, Michael South, “The Peace Campaigns of Ensign Faunce. [Part III. Chapter XIV.]”, in Fraser’s Magazine for Town and Country, volume XXXIX, number CCXXXIV, London: John W[illiam] Parker, West Strand, →OCLC, page 679, column 1:

     He became for a short time delirious, in consequence of attempting to comprehend the works of Mr. Nebulous, in which the English language is exhibited casting of summersets, with many prancings to and fro, before earnest-gazing, head-scratching readers, in murkiest obscuration, marvel stricken, with maddest humour and grinning contortions, heels-over-head, wondrous!

   • 2021 April 21, Anatoly Liberman, “Going out on a Limb”, in Oxford Etymologist‎^[1]:

     They may face an impenetrable word, approach its murky history from every direction, and fail to find a convincing solution (or even any solution: “origin unknow,” “the rest is unclear,” and the like).

   • 2022 October 28, Maria Cramer, “Beaches? Cruises? ‘Dark’ Tourists Prefer the Gloomy and Macabre”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Mr. Farrier, 39, said he often questioned the moral implications of his trips. “It’s very ethically murky territory,” Mr. Farrier said.

   • 2022 December 23, Keith Bradsher, Amy Chang Chien, Joy Dong, “As Cases Explode, China’s Low Covid Death Toll Convinces No One”, in The New York Times‎^[3], →ISSN:

     China’s murky statistics are fueling widespread public distrust. Its narrow definition of Covid deaths “will very much underestimate the true death toll,” the W.H.O. says.

4. (by extension) Dishonest, shady.
   • 2016 May 23, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, “Apocalypse pits the strengths of the X-Men series against the weaknesses”, in The A.V. Club‎^[4], archived from the original on 24 May 2016:

     Ever since X-Men: First Class set the series' clock back a few decades and installed Michael Fassbender's moody Magneto and James McAvoy's louche Charles Xavier as replacements for Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart's chess-playing pappies, the big-screen X-Men's central conflict—Xavier's Booker T. Washington-esque School For Gifted Youngsters vs. a rogue's gallery of evil mutants, crew cuts, and politicos—has gotten a lot murkier.

• dark

• murk

• “murky”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “murky”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.