mucking
Clearing out filth
Mucking is digging, clearing, or working with muck—wet dirt, manure, or debris.
You muck out a stable by removing soiled bedding.
In mining, mucking is clearing broken rock from a tunnel.
The word extends to messy or aimless activity: Stop mucking around and get to work.
To muck something up is to ruin it through carelessness.
Animal waste as fertilizer
- stallsDelays or compartments
- beddingMaterials covering a mattress
- shovelingMoving material with a blade tool
- pitchforkPronged tool for moving straw
grooming · straw · barn · livestock · hay · equestrian · paddock · wheelbarrow
Removing earth below
- shovelingMoving material with a blade tool
- toilStrenuous, prolonged effort
- drudgeryHard, boring work
- grindCrush into particles
exertion · manual · trenching · hauling · backbreaking · sweaty · thankless · exhausting
Wet soil mixture
Casual, unskilled adjusting
- fiddlingAimless, restless manipulation
- messingActing without serious intent
- foolingTricking or joking
- tamperingImproper interference with something
dabbling · playing · pottering · bungling · interfering · botching · experimenting · fumbling
Causing complete destruction
- spoilingCausing ruin or decay
- bunglingMishandling through incompetence
- botchingDoing something poorly
- wreckingDestroying completely
undermining · derailing · sabotaging · tampering · interfering · disrupting · meddling · damaging
manure
Animal waste as fertilizer
- stallsDelays or compartments
- beddingMaterials covering a mattress
- shovelingMoving material with a blade tool
pitchfork · grooming · straw · barn · livestock · hay · equestrian · paddock · wheelbarrow · dung
digging
Removing earth below
grind · exertion · manual · trenching · hauling · backbreaking · sweaty · thankless · exhausting · grueling
mud
Wet soil mixture
mire · slime · silt · gunk · crud · ooze · swamp · bog · soil · squelch
tinkering
Casual, unskilled adjusting
tampering · dabbling · playing · pottering · bungling · interfering · botching · experimenting · fumbling · monkeying
ruining
Causing complete destruction
wrecking · undermining · derailing · sabotaging · tampering · interfering · disrupting · meddling · damaging · corrupting
- dirtyingsoiling, dirtying, staining, smearing, smudging
- minemine shaft, adit, drift, crosscut, raise
- gold mininggold pan, pan, panning, nuggets, gold nugget
- stable jobsgroom, stable hand, head groom, feeding, grooming
- stable maintenancestall cleaning, bedding, water troughs, pitchforks, wheelbarrows
- stablesbox stall, stalls, paddock, paddocks, tack room
muckingtidying
Making spaces orderly
cleaning · scrubbing · sanitizing · purifying · polishing
muckingworking
In active function
focusing · concentrating · applying oneself · buckling down · getting serious
muckingfixing
Restoring proper function
repairing · perfecting · refining · improving · correcting
- mucking aboutAimless playful activity
- mucking aroundAimless, unserious activity
- mucking upCausing something to fail
- mucking outRemoving dung and bedding
- mucking inSharing communal labor
- mucking stallsRemoving livestock waste from enclosures