murky
adj.dark and dirty, making it hard to see through. It can describe water with mud in it or a situation that is not clear or honest.
adj.characterised by darkness, thickness, or dirt that obscures visibility. Often used figuratively to describe suspicious or morally ambiguous situations where the full truth is hidden.
“The lake water was too murky to see the bottom.”
“The company's murky financial history made investors nervous about the new merger.”
“The investigation stalled as detectives navigated the murky waters of international espionage, where every lead seemed to dissolve into a web of conflicting interests and half-truths.”
Commonly modifies nouns related to liquids (water, depths) or abstract concepts (past, details, world).
“In small groups living in murky water, fish reached the food more quickly when they stayed close together and swam in the same direction.”
From Middle English mirky. Related to Old Norse myrkr, Russian мрак (mrak) and its Slavic cognates. By surface analysis, murk + -y.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.