Has anyone heard the term "Muckley" (Muckly/Muckely). The context I heard was "It was all Muckley done" and then explained to me to mean "a random visual mess; no pattern or proportion of shapes colors or design; mangled". I've heard all "mucked up" but I thought they were just being polite, mispronouncing what they would normally say... "f***** up". Of course, I have heard of muck and mire...

I've heard all "mucked up" but I thought they were just being polite

I heard and used "mucked up" for donkey's years before I ever heard the F-word let alone used it!
Mucked up is commonly used even today and not as a substitute but as a stand alone meaning mangled, confused, jury rigged, half-done, a general mess.
wow

Dear musick: I seem to remember a Scottish saying: "Many a mickle makes a muckle."

mick[le 7mik4!l8
adj., adv., n.
5ME (Northern) mikel < OE micel, infl. by ON mikell: for IE base see MUCH6 [Now Chiefly Scot.] much


Many a mickle [July 1999; 2-1]
... and cost. The old Scottish proverb tells us that "many a mickle makes a muckle"
- understandable if it is the same as looking after the pennies. The point is ...
http://www.jr2.ox.ac.uk/Bandolier/ImpAct/imp02/i2-1.html

For you, sweet musick, I took the time to look this up on
a webite of Scottish language, and got:
mickle small quantity
mind remember
mither mother
monie many
morn morning
muckle big, great, large, much

The site is sponsored, to my amazement, by the Ngaio Press
of Wellington, New Zealand!
http://www.actrix.gen.nz/users/ngaiopress/

The site is sponsored, to my amazement, by the Ngaio Press
of Wellington, New Zealand!
http://www.actrix.gen.nz/users/ngaiopress/


You're right, intelligence and literacy in Welllington, who woulda thunk it?

Max - This takes sibling rivalry to a whole new depth!

I heard and used "mucked up" for donkey's years...

How long would those be! ... and where do you start measuring from; where they detach from the skull..?

morn (=) morning

When I meet someone on the street in the morning, a pleasant exchange of eye contact will be followed by ..."Morn"... (and a tip of a hat if I'm wearing one, or a nod of the head).

This is, as I recall, specifically a Norsk gesture! Ooooooh satin!?!?

Max - This takes sibling rivalry to a whole new depth!

How did you know that my sister lives in Wellington?! Aksherley, that was a little jibe at Jackies' post which had remninded me of the "wow, you mean there's kulcha in NZ?" atttitude that was common once upon a long ago. That, and the fact that as national capital, Wellington is the wordiest city in NZ.

I heard and used "mucked up" for donkey's years...

How long would those be!

I'm not sure, but would a thousand of them be a mulennium?

How did you know that my sister lives in Wellington?!

Yo Bro's are across the "other" pond from my "perspective"...(always somwhere in the middle) If we 'cross thread, language has relegated [duckingfromskeet] the "father" to "sibling" here...

Don't assk me to 'splain any fodder!

Yo Bro's are across the "other" pond from my "perspective"...(always somwhere in the middle)

Yup, and our pond is bigger than your pond - how an overgrown lake like the Atlantic has the cheek to call itself an ocean, I'll never know. Just get back to me in a couple of aeons when the Atlantic has grown bigger than the shrinking Pacific. Until the coming of that brayve new world, I shall retire to my burro.

Jackies' post which had remninded me of the "wow, you mean there's kulcha in NZ?" atttitude that was common once upon a long ago.

Point of clarification, if you please: I was amazed for two reasons only: mostly the fact that the source of info. about Scottish language was so far from Scotland,
and to a lesser extent simply that that info. would come from anywhere other than Scotland. [Don't be so danged
paranoid emoticon] It looked like, from one of the book titles, that there was a pocket or two of land in NZ that was settled by Scots a century or two ago. 'Sides, I happen to know for a fact that there are some very cultured people in NZ! [Put that in your pipe and smoke it e]

"Mulennium", "ass(k)", return to my "burro"---OW, you guys!

I rather think I'm glad I've missed this thread up until now.

Sort of bringing this back to the original question: I have heard "all mucked up" used to describe something that is messed up, but not "muckled up".

When I was a kid, the term "muckle" was used in the sense of necking - as in energetic kissing. When 2 kids at a high school party retreated to a corner to make out, they were said to be muckling. I don't believe this usage ever attained widespread acceptance, and as such behavior is rare these days at my office, I don't have much occasion to use it.

To confuse things, the Dictionary of Newfoundland English has a totally different definition:

muckle v To tug or strenuously pull up (something).
1924 ENGLAND 237 Here I been workin' ahl me life, draggin' and 'aulin, mucklin' up
grayples. 1975 RUSSELL 20 'Did you get 'em all dug up?' said I. 'Yes, Paddy,' said she,
'every blessed one of 'em, exceptin' one ... one of 'em was a bit too big for me to muckle.
So I left it bide for you and the crew to handle.'

I've been away for a bit so it's taking me a while to get back into the swing of things. Thought I would make a first post using mostly someone else's words!

Bean, your post triggered a memory. I suddenly remembered my Grandfather McDermott using the word in a similar way as you defined it ...To tug or strenuously pull up
I remember his tasking his sons (my uncles) to "muckle in a load of wood for the fire."
Haven't heard it since then. Perhaps it's an old-time phrase. Grandfather was born in Leeds England and mayhap he brought the phrase with him?
wow