turbid

Etymology

From Middle English turbide, borrowed from Latin turbidus (“disturbed”), from turba (“mass, throng, crowd, tumult, disturbance”).

adj

1. (of a liquid) Having the lees or sediment disturbed; not clear.
   On the 6th October, the 18th day of her illness, she presented the following phenomena: — pulse small and quick — urine yellow and turbid. 1827, The Medico-chirurgical Review and Journal of Medical Science
   He perceived more clearly the cruelty of Nature, to whom our refinement and piety are but as bubbles, hurrying downwards on the turbid waters. 1907, E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey, Part II, XXIII [Uniform ed., p. 217]
   This makes the estimation of the refractive index of the turbid liquid quite problematic. 2004, Jukka A. Räty, Kai-Erik Peiponen, Toshimitsu Asakura, UV-Visible Reflection Spectroscopy of Liquids, page 30
   The resulting impression filled with turbid mash liquor, which was hand-pumped through a tube into a separate kettle. 2005, Jeff Sparrow, Wild Brews: Beer Beyond the Influence of Brewer's Yeast
   In the turbid state, the development of submerged vegetation is prevented by low underwater light levels. 2013, Marten Scheffer, Ecology of Shallow Lakes, page ix
   turbid water
   turbid wine
2. Smoky or misty.
   Towards the last I increased the heat, and by that means produced a very turbid air, of which I collected a prodigious quantity. 1776, Joseph Priestley, Experiments And Observations On Different Kinds Of Air
   Involuntarily, he stepped behind some alder brush off the trail. Another flutter of wind thinning the turbid mist. 2012, Agnes Christina Laut, The Freebooters of the Wilderness
   The turbid air over major cities is often described as a dust dome. 2014, Thad Godish, Wayne T. Davis, Joshua S. Fu, Air Quality, page 112
3. Unclear; confused; obscure.
   Motion, to take a good example, is originally a turbid sensation, of which the native shape is perhaps best preserved in the phenomenon of vertigo. 2010, Adrian Mackenzie, Wirelessness: Radical Empiricism in Network Cultures, page 1
   Those turbid emotions swirled inside him again—part frustration, part anxiety. 2012, Julia James, The Dark Side Of Desire
   In the aforementioned paragraph 406 of the Encyclopedia, magnetic ecstasy is described as a confused and turbid experience because its content does not present itself in rational form: for this reason the state of the somnambulist should not be considered as a possible path to cognition (Erkenntnis). 2016, Cecilia Muratori, The First German Philosopher