v. [f. BE- 6 + MUD.] Hence Bemudded ppl. a., Bemudding vbl. sb.
1. trans. To cover, bespatter or befoul with mud.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Embouër, to bedirt, or bemud one.
1611. Cotgr., Enfangement, a bedurtying, bemyring, bemudding.
1659. Arrowsmith, Armilla Catech., I. iv. § 5. Elephants … are wont, before they drink, to bemud the water.
1832. Fraser’s Mag., VI. 251. He often rides in swampy ways … and bemuds his friends.
2. fig. To confuse, muddle.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (1871), 35. And so troubledly bemudded with grief and care … my purer intellectual powers.
1790. Coleridge, Devonsh. Roads, Poems I. 14. Dull sounds the Bard’s bemudded lyre.
1863. Chambers, Bk. of Days, 124. Satan … first tried by bemudding his thoughts, to divert him from the design of becoming a monk.
