Cleaning out dirt and waste, especially animal manure from stables or fields, or making a mess of something.
From Middle English and Old Norse 'myki,' meaning dung. Originally used literally for farm work, it extended to mean making something messy or ruining it.
Farm kids have done 'mucking out' stables for centuries—it's one of the first jobs young people get on farms because it's necessary but nobody else wants to do it, making it a universal coming-of-age experience.
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