murky

murky waters

A situation or circumstance that is foreign, unclear, or unfamiliar and which may be dangerous or difficult as a result. We're starting to get into murky waters exploiting these tax loopholes. If we aren't careful, the government may crack down on us hard! John keeps himself so closed off that I've never understood the murky waters of his emotions.
See also: murky, water
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

(be in/get into) murky/uncharted ˈwaters

(be in/get into) a difficult or dangerous situation that you do not know anything about: As I opened up the computer to try and fix the problem, I realized that I was getting into completely uncharted waters and decided to leave it to the experts.
Murky water is dark or dirty. If somebody is in uncharted waters, they are in an area of sea or ocean that is not known or recorded on a map.
See also: murky, uncharted, water
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • murky waters
  • murky/uncharted waters
  • in a sticky situation
  • mixed up in (something)
  • on a sticky wicket
  • batting on a sticky wicket
  • be in a sticky situation
  • be (batting) on a sticky wicket
  • a sticky situation
  • sticky
References in periodicals archive
Barry Sheerman, who chairs the Commons' education select committee considering the suggestions, said: "It's time to sort out this muddy and murky situation".
Director Jane Campion's latest offering--a mix of cults, Kate, and Keitel--is as murky as it is quirky
Hunters with nets and lassoes failed to trap the animal after it vanished in murky water.
Long-necked aquatic creatures such as Dinocephalosaurus presumably were well camouflaged because, in dim or murky waters, the true bulk of an approaching predator could be hidden from the view of prey.
Fracture, distortion, murky handling of paint-these have long been the mainstays of Georg Baselitz's art, as this exhibition of his early drawings and paintings indicated.
Atalanta lived in the murky era of Greek prehistory, when centaurs roamed and the gods and goddesses fully participated in the events unfolding before them.
All these murky memories and high-concept stories are culled from Sedaris's own odd life.
The evolutionary origins of language remain murky, cautions anatomist Jeffrey T.
Objects have rich emotional patinas, as in The Old Typewriter, 1999, in which the object has the murky black complexion and contours of a portable Remington.
It's during this passage that sperm gain their full capacity to swim and fertilize eggs, although what triggers this maturation remains murky.
The use in these works of mirrors to capture, record, and scrutinize the self, as in Adrian Piper's murky self-portraits and Laurie Anderson's comically distorted photographs of her own face, was ubiquitous.
Once an emerald leaves its country of origin and circulates around the world, the gem's provenance becomes murky. Scientists have now developed a nondestructive method for determining the source of an emerald, even down to the mine from which it was extracted.
Making your way carefully through the murky labyrinth of disparate elements (moving and still images, lights and pockets of darkness, objects and props disposed through distinct spaces) allows for only one sure experience: losing sight of everything you're not looking at right then.
In particular, glia known as astrocytes make up about half the cells in the brain, although their exact role has remained murky. In 2001, a research group led by Ben Barres of Stanford University School of Medicine reported that astrocytes somehow enable nerve cells to form the specialized brain connections called synapses.
The unexpected absence of the photographer's silhouette among the murky forms adds to the confusion.