How to Use muck up in a Sentence

muck up

verb
  • I swear, she mucks up everything she tries.
  • The inclusion of roast beef just seemed to muck up the mix, which read as a murky, meaty mash.
    — Emily Heil, Washington Post, 6 July 2023
  • This wouldn’t be the first time such a discrepancy mucks up the MCU.
    — Siddhant Adlakha, Vulture, 26 July 2024
  • Then the Legislature moved the lines and mucked up Cole’s plans.
    — Kyle Whitmire | Kwhitmire@al.com, al, 11 July 2023
  • And no string, rope, cord or twine, which can muck up postal machinery.
    — Marc Bona, cleveland, 1 Dec. 2022
  • The team length is helpful in a multitude of ways, but one is how the Jazz can muck up the paint and still get out to shooters.
    — Andy Larsen, The Salt Lake Tribune, 31 Oct. 2022
  • Democrats will continue to try and muck up Trump legally and stop him from getting on the ballot.
    — Joe Battenfeld, Boston Herald, 25 Jan. 2024
  • Lopez believes Uresti enlisted Garcia to run as a way to muck up the race.
    — Gilbert Garcia, San Antonio Express-News, 8 Feb. 2022
  • The Supreme Court, in its infinite wisdom, has only mucked up the waters.
    — Washington Post, 9 July 2024
  • The hilly landscapes block views of storms, mucking up storm-chasing efforts.
    — Carolyn Wilke, Smithsonian Magazine, 1 Nov. 2023
  • Any chance of mucking up the motivation of the accused is seized upon.
    — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 28 Apr. 2023
  • And can good directors totally muck up a big IP project?
    — Time, 25 July 2023
  • Puddles of oozing tar have been showing up over the last week, mucking up car tires and anything else that gets mired in the sticky black substance.
    — Jeremy Childs, Los Angeles Times, 15 Sep. 2023
  • Raj Verma was brought in to fix the public works system in a town known for sewage spills that muck up homeowners’ yards and neighborhood streets.
    — Susannah Bryan, sun-sentinel.com, 1 July 2021
  • The sphere is now rigged to heat and cool things—space gets very hot and very cold—and to handle simulant, which would muck up a standard vacuum system.
    — Matthew Hutson, The New Yorker, 24 Sep. 2024
  • Then come foul up, goof up, gum up, mess up, muck up, screw up and synonymous unprintables.
    — Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 Mar. 2021
  • There are times when Moody passes up open jump shots in favor of drives into a crowded paint, which can muck up a possession.
    — Danny Emerman, The Mercury News, 18 Apr. 2024
  • In this year’s release, the IRS has decided to muck up one measure of its performance that has drawn the most heat from lawmakers.
    — Paul Kiel, ProPublica, 30 June 2020
  • He has been blamed for mismanaging the bullpen, mucking up the lineup and failing to put this team in a position to succeed.
    — Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times, 12 Oct. 2023
  • He has been blamed for mismanaging the bullpen, mucking up the lineup, and failing to put this team in a position to succeed.
    — Dylan Hernández, Los Angeles Times, 12 Oct. 2023
  • That's where Adebayo's extension could muck up their free-agency plans.
    — Bryan Toporek, Forbes, 19 May 2021
  • Kansas City’s defense was waiting and stuffed him short of a first down — or at least mucked up the play enough that a replay review couldn’t determine whether Allen had reached the line to gain.
    — Rohan Nadkarni, NBC News, 6 Feb. 2025
  • The stick format means it can be applied without mucking up your hands, and older kids can apply it themselves.
    — Mandy Harris, Travel + Leisure, 18 Oct. 2023
  • Of all the crew members, Mouse is the most philosophical, speaking early about how the machines have mucked up the taste of his favorite cereal.
    — Mathew Rodriguez, Them, 6 Mar. 2025
  • Because Butler is a weak 3-point shooter, Boston will crowd the paint and muck up Miami’s spacing.
    — New York Times, 17 May 2022
  • Stock market The stock market is off to its best start to a year since 1997 but a massive dockworkers strike underway in the US could muck up some of that progress, economists say.
    — Alexandra Banner, CNN, 2 Oct. 2024
  • That trademark defense that muddies the waters for many, mucking up rhythm and leaving teams feeling hot breath on necks barely slowed the high-flying Huskies.
    — Bryce Miller, San Diego Union-Tribune, 29 Mar. 2024
  • The area also makes for a great storage space, especially for dirty shoes that otherwise muck up the living quarters.
    — Ben Romans, Outdoor Life, 10 Sep. 2019
  • Duke Be less chaotic The Blue Devils are masters at mucking up a game, whether that’s by pressing, forcing turnovers or drawing (and committing) fouls.
    — Sabreena Merchant, The Athletic, 30 Dec. 2024
  • But these Eagles have waded through mud all season, mucking up the pace at their discretion, executing down the stretch.
    — Luca Evans, Los Angeles Times, 11 Mar. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'muck up.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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