mess up vs muddle

mess up

verb
  • To make a mess of; to untidy, disorder, soil, or muss. 

  • To damage; injure. 

  • To manhandle; beat up; rough up. 

  • To botch, bungle; to perform poorly on. 

  • To cause a problem with; to introduce an error or mistake in; to make muddled or confused; spoil; ruin. 

  • To cause (another person) to make unwanted mistakes in a given task, usually through distraction or obnoxious behavior. 

  • To make a mistake; to do something incorrectly; to perform poorly. 

  • To discombobulate, utterly confuse, or confound psychologically; to throw into a state of mental disarray. 

muddle

verb
  • To dabble in mud. 

  • To mash slightly for use in a cocktail. 

  • To think and act in a confused, aimless way. 

  • To cloud or stupefy; to render stupid with liquor; to intoxicate partially. 

  • To mix together, to mix up; to confuse. 

  • To make turbid or muddy. 

  • To waste or misuse, as one does who is stupid or intoxicated. 

noun
  • A mixture of crushed ingredients, as prepared with a muddler. 

  • A mixture; a confusion; a garble. 

How often have the words mess up and muddle occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )