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
  • 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
  • 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 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Privacy Policy What role will politics play in mucking up this whole process?
    Nicholas Florko and Sarah Owermohle, STAT, 30 May 2024
  • The mediocre ones muck up their work with ahistorical paint colors or materials.
    Christopher Bonanos, Curbed, 17 July 2021
  • With the global chip shortage continuing to muck up automotive supply chains and vehicle prices at record levels, consumers looking for a new set of wheels have a lot to consider.
    J.j. McCorvey, WSJ, 26 Aug. 2021
  • If he’s needed on the court for a few minutes, Forrest can expel a ton of energy on defense, providing that bench hound defensive mindset that can really muck up the flow of a contending offense.
    The Salt Lake Tribune, 16 Apr. 2022
  • With so many active tools, the inundation of alerts can’t help but muck up even the most streamlined system, which is why most organizations have such a large backlog of vulnerabilities.
    Yoran Sirkis, Forbes, 28 Dec. 2022
  • The Bruins become not only stout against the run but also muck up opposing passing attacks thanks to a secondary featuring playmaking cornerback Devin Kirkwood.
    Ben Bolch, Los Angeles Times, 27 Aug. 2022
  • Any revision of the Netflix interface has to clear a high bar, because, as multiple staffers keep reminding me, nobody wants to muck up a user experience that generally works so well.
    Josef Adalian, Vulture, 13 May 2021
  • Rapidly growing mega-constellations of internet satellites are already mucking up researchers’ observations of worlds beyond Earth.
    Justine Calma, The Verge, 2 Oct. 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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