From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmurkymurk‧y /ˈmɜːki $ ˈmɜːr-/ adjective 1 DARKdark and difficult to see through murky water► see thesaurus at dark2 complicated and difficult to understand SYN obscure The laws on intellectual property are murky. the murky waters (=complicated subject) of sexuality and jealousy3 DISHONESTinvolving dishonest or illegal activities that are kept secret SYN shady a murky world of fraud and secret deals a politician with a murky past —murkiness noun [uncountable]
Examples from the Corpus
murky• Water that was clear and alive with wildlife as recently as the late 1940s is now murky and almost lifeless.• the murky and ambiguous world of spying• He walked from there, up barren gray streets, streetlamps painting the sidewalks a murky bronze.• The fact that the definitions of these terms are extremely murky can inpart be traced to the notion of pertinent effects.• Video: This is the murkiest field for the new company.• There is an eerie stamp of disaster about this wind-thrown entanglement in the murky half-light of night water.• The committee is struggling to sort out the facts on a number of murky issues.• Determining motivation in any human endeavor is a murky matter, but two motives stand out: making money and making law.• By afternoon the atmosphere seems translucent blue, like some murky view must have looked through a Silurian sea.• A single sinuous shape, shedding milk light, moved in the cold, murky water overhead.• murky watermurky waters• A last desperate attempt to escape into the murky waters.• I would be chary of anything caught in these murky waters.• Multi-dimensional scaling can help to clear the murky waters.• People still exhibit articles for sale on the quayside for visiting cruise ships, but boys no longer dive into the murky waters.• This is useful if you fly by night or live in murky waters.• To venture into such murky waters claiming scholarly privilege, the scholarship must be beyond reproach.• A fish that comes from slow-moving often murky waters is unlikely to appreciate bright lighting or turbulent filtration.• But then our conversations took a dive into the murky waters of sexuality and jealousy. 