N. uncertainty, incertitude, doubt, doubtfulness, dubiety, dubitation, dubitancy|, dubitousness, hesitation, suspense, perplexity, embarrassment, dilemma, bewilderment, timidity, vacillation, diaporesis, indetermination, vagueness, haze, fog, obscurity, ambiguity, contingency, dependence, dependency, double contingency, possibility upon a possibility, open question, onus probandi, blind bargain, pig in a poke, leap in the dark, something or other, needle in a haystack, needle in a bottle of hay, roving commission, precariousness, fallibility

V. be uncertain, wonder whether, lose the clue, lose the clew, scent, miss one's way, not know what to make of, not know which way to turn, not know whether one stands on one's head or one's heels, float in a sea of doubt, hesitate, flounder, lose oneself, lose one's head, muddle one's brains, render uncertain, put out, pose, puzzle, perplex, embarrass, confuse, confound, bewilder, bother, molder, addle the wits, throw off the scent, ambiguas in vulgus spargere voces, keep in suspense, doubt, hang in the balance, tremble in the balance, depend

Adj. uncertain, casual, random, changeable, doubtful, dubious, indecisive, unsettled, undecided, undetermined, in suspense, open to discussion, controvertible, in question, vague, indeterminate, indefinite, ambiguous, equivocal, undefined, undefinable, confused, mystic, oracular, dazed, perplexing, enigmatic, paradoxical, apocryphal, problematical, hypothetical, experimental, unpredictable, unforeseeable (unknowable) 519, fallible, questionable, precarious, slippery, ticklish, debatable, disputable, unreliable, untrustworthy, contingent, contingent on, dependent on, subject to, dependent on circumstances, occasional, provisional, unauthentic, unauthenticated, unauthoritative, unascertained, unconfirmed, undemonstrated, untold, uncounted, in a state of uncertainty, in a cloud, in a maze, bushed, off the track, ignorant, &c. 491, afraid to say, out of one's reckoning, astray, adrift, at sea, at fault, at a loss, at one's wit's end, at a nonplus, puzzled, lost, abroad, dsorient, distracted, distraught

Adv. pendente lite, sub spe rati

Phr. heaven knows, who can tell? who shall decide when doctors disagree? ambiguas in vulgum spargere voces

N. uncleanness, impurity, immundity, immundicity, impurity, defilement, contamination, defoedation|, soilure, soiliness|, abomination, leaven, taint, tainture|, fetor, decay, putrescence, putrefaction, corruption, mold, must, mildew, dry rot, mucor, rubigo|, slovenry, slovenliness &c

V. be unclean, become unclean, rot, putrefy, ferment, fester, rankle, reek, stink, mold, molder, go bad, render unclean, dirt, dirty, daub, blot, blur, smudge, smutch, soil, smoke, tarnish, slaver, spot, smear, smirch, begrease, dabble, drabble, draggle, daggle, spatter, slubber, besmear &c, bemire, beslime, begrime, befoul, splash, stain, distain, maculate, sully, pollute, defile, debase, contaminate, taint, leaven, corrupt, cover with dust, drabble in the mud, roil, wallow in the mire, slobber, slabber

Adj. dirty, squalor, filthy, dowdy, grimy, drab, unclean, slut, impure, malkin, soiled, slattern, not to be handled with kid gloves, sloven, dusty, slammerkin|, snuffy, slammock, smutty, slummock, sooty, scrub, smoky, draggle-tail, thick, mudlark, turbid, dust- man, dreggy, sweep, slimy, beast, mussy, dirt, slovenly, filth, untidy, soil, messy, slop, uncleanly, dust, unkempt, cobweb, sluttish, flue, dowdy, smoke, draggle-tailed, soot, uncombed, smudge, unscoured, smut, unswept, grit, unwiped, grime, unwashed, raff, unstrained, sossle, unpurified, sozzle, squalid, sordes, lutose, dregs, slammocky, grounds, slummocky, lees, sozzly, argol, nasty, sediment, coarse, settlement heeltap, foul, dross, offensive, drossiness, abominable, mother|, beastly, precipitate, reeky, scoriae, reechy, ashes, fetid, cinders, decayed, recrement, moldy, slag, musty, scum, mildewed, froth, rusty, hogwash, moth-eaten, ditchwater, mucid, dishwater, rancid, bilgewater, weak, rinsings, bad, cheeseparings, gone bad, sweepings, etercoral, offscourings, lentiginous, outscourings, touched, off scum, fusty, caput mortuum, effete, residuum, reasty, sprue, rotten, fecula, corrupt, clinker, tainted, draff, high, scurf, flyblown, scurfiness, maggoty, exuviae, putrid, morphea, putrefactive, fur, putrescent, furfur, putrefied, dandruff, saprogenic, tartar, saprogenous, riffraff, purulent, vermin, carious, louse, peccant, flea, fecal, bug, feculent, chinch, stercoraceous, mud, excrementitious, mire, scurfy, quagmire, scurvy, alluvium, impetiginous, silt, gory, sludge, bloody, slime, rotting, slush, rotten as a pear, slosh, rotten as cheese, sposh, crapulous, spawn, gross, offal, fimetarious, gurry, fimicolous, lientery, garbage, carrion, excreta, slough, peccant humor, pus, matter, suppuration, lienteria, faeces, feces, excrement, ordure, dung, crap, shit, sewage, sewerage, muck, coprolite, guano, manure, compost, dunghill, colluvies, mixen, midden, bog, laystall, sink, privy, jakes, toilet, john, head, cess, cesspool, sump, sough, cloaca, latrines, drain, sewer, common sewer, cloacina, dust hole, sty, pigsty, lair, den, augean stable, sink of corruption, slum, rookery

Phr. "they that touch pitch will be defiled"

N. deterioration, debasement, wane, ebb, recession, retrogradation, decrease, degeneracy, degeneration, degenerateness, degradation, depravation, depravement, devolution, depravity, demoralization, retrogression, masochism, impairment, inquination|, injury, damage, loss, detriment, delaceration|, outrage, havoc, inroad, ravage, scath, perversion, prostitution, vitiation, discoloration, oxidation, pollution, defoedation|, poisoning, venenation|, leaven, contamination, canker, corruption, adulteration, alloy, decline, declension, declination, decadence, decadency, falling off, caducity, decrepitude, decay, dilapidation, ravages of time, wear and tear, corrosion, erosion, moldiness, rottenness, moth and rust, dry rot, blight, marasmus, atrophy, collapse, disorganization, delabrement &c. (destruction), 162, aphid, aphis, plant louse, puceron, vinefretter, vinegrub, wreck, mere wreck, honeycomb, magni nominis umbra, jade, plug, rackabones, skate, tackey, tacky

V. be worse, be deteriorated, become worse, become deteriorated, have seen better days, deteriorate, degenerate, fall off, wane, ebb, retrograde - decline, droop, go down, go downhill, go from bad to worse, go farther and fare worse, jump out of the frying pan into the fire, run to seed, go to seed, run to waste swale|, sweal|, lapse, be the worse for, sphacelate, break, break down, spring a leak, crack, start, shrivel, fade, go off, wither, molder, rot, rankle, decay, go bad, go to decay, fall into decay, "fall into the sear and yellow leaf", rust, crumble, shake, totter, totter to its fall, perish, die, deteriorate, weaken, put back, set back, taint, infect, contaminate, poison, empoison, envenom, canker, corrupt, exulcerate|, pollute, vitiate, inquinate|, debase, embase|, denaturalize, denature, leaven, deflower, debauch, defile, deprave, degrade, ulcerate, stain, discolor, alloy, adulterate, sophisticate, tamper with, prejudice, pervert, prostitute, demoralize, brutalize, render vicious, embitter, acerbate, exacerbate, aggravate, injure, impair, labefy, damage, harm, hurt, shend|, scath|, scathe, spoil, mar, despoil, dilapidate, waste, overrun, ravage, pillage, wound, stab, pierce, maim, lame, surbate|, cripple, hough, hamstring, hit between wind and water, scotch, mangle, mutilate, disfigure, blemish, deface, warp, blight, rot, corrode, erode, wear away, wear out, gnaw, gnaw at the root of, sap, mine, undermine, shake, sap the foundations of, break up, disorganize, dismantle, dismast, destroy, damnify, do one's worst, knock down, deal a blow to, play havoc with, play sad havoc with, play the mischief with, play the deuce with, play the very devil with, play havoc among, play sad havoc among, play the mischief among, play the deuce among, play the very devil among, decimate

Adj. unimproved &c. (improve ), deteriorated, altered, altered for the worse, injured, sprung, withering, spoiling, on the wane, on the decline, tabid, degenerate, marescent, worse, the worse for, all the worse for, out of repair, out of tune, imperfect, the worse for wear, battered, weathered, weather-beaten, stale, passe, shaken, dilapidated, frayed, faded, wilted, shabby, secondhand, threadbare, worn, worn to a thread, worn to a shadow, worn to the stump, worn to rags, reduced, reduced to a skeleton, far gone, tacky, decayed, moth-eaten, worm-eaten, mildewed, rusty, moldy, spotted, seedy, time-worn, moss-grown, discolored, effete, wasted, crumbling, moldering, rotten, cankered, blighted, tainted, depraved, decrepid, decrepit, broke, busted, broken, out of commission, hors de combat, out of action, broken down, done, done for, done up, worn out, used up, finished, beyond saving, fit for the dust hole, fit for the wastepaper basket, past work, at a low ebb, in a bad way, on one's last legs, undermined, deciduous, nodding to its fall, tottering &c, (dangerous) 665: past cure, fatigued, retrograde, deleterious

Phr. out of the frying pan into the fire, agrescit medendo, "what a falling off was there!"