murky

Cognate to or directly from Old Norse myrkr. Compare Russian, Serbian мрак.

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• Rhymes: -ɜː(r)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, 2nd edition, London: John Macrone, […], OCLC 905901972, 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, William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene i]:

     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.
4. Dishonest, shady.

• dark

• murk
• murkily
• murkiness

• murky in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• murky in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.