Phrase guide

muddle through

verb · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈmʌdl̩ θɹuː/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈmʌd(ə)l θɹu/

1

verb

Meaning 1

To succeed (often clumsily) despite being ill-equipped or inadequately trained.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: ambitransitive

Examples

  • I’ve only had a few lessons, but I can muddle through the test.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: get along, get by, make do, muddle along, scrape along, scrape by

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From muddle (“to think and act in a confused, aimless way”) + through.

Across languages

Translations

7 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Mandarin: 應付過去 /应付过去 (yìngfuguòqu) — to succeed (often clumsily) despite being ill-equipped or inadequately trained
  • Chinese Mandarin: 勉強勝任 /勉强胜任 (miǎnqiǎngshèngrèn) — to succeed (often clumsily) despite being ill-equipped or inadequately trained
  • Finnish: selvitä jotenkin — to succeed (often clumsily) despite being ill-equipped or inadequately trained
  • Finnish: pärjätä jotenkin — to succeed (often clumsily) despite being ill-equipped or inadequately trained
  • Finnish: rämpiä läpi — to succeed (often clumsily) despite being ill-equipped or inadequately trained
  • German: sich durchwursteln — to succeed (often clumsily) despite being ill-equipped or inadequately trained
  • Mon: နကဵုထုဲထံၚ် — to succeed (often clumsily) despite being ill-equipped or inadequately trained