Pronunciations
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/mɛs/
Noun
A thing or group of things in a disagreeable, disorganised, or dirty state; hence a bad situation.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Synonyms
- Examples
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More examples (1)
No, look, I know that the place looks like a bit of a mess but it's actually a very delicate ecosystem. Everything is connected. It's like the rainforest. You change one thing, even the tiniest bit, and the whooole rainforest dies. You don't want the rainforest to die, do ya?
He made a mess of it.
My bedroom is such a mess; I need to tidy up.
A large quantity or number.
Usage- Colloquial
- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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Messerschmidts! A whole mess of Messerschmidts!
My boss dumped a whole mess of projects on my desk today.
More examples (1)
She brought back a mess of fish to fix for supper.
Excrement.
Usage- Countable
- euphemistic
- Uncountable
- Examples
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There was dog mess all along the street.
Did you hear that? It scared the mess out of me.
A person in a state of (especially emotional) turmoil or disarray; an emotional wreck.
Usage- Countable
- Figurative
- Uncountable
- Examples
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Between the pain and the depression, I'm a mess.
He's been a mess and a half ever since you excommunicated him.
More examples (1)
I'm a mess in a dress, can't show up on time even if it would save my life. According to you.
Verb
To make untidy or dirty. To make soiled by defecating.
Usage- often
- Transitive
- with "up"
- Examples
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It seems like all you do is cry, eat, and mess your diapers!
To make untidy or dirty. To make soiled by ejaculating.
Usage- often
- Transitive
- with "up"
To throw into disorder or to ruin.
Usage- often
- Transitive
- with "up"
- Examples
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More examples (1)
Charles Dickens, quoted in: 1875, John Forster, The Life of Charles Dickens Yet I was not sorry that the creature found the loophole for escape. The officers had taken him illegally without any warrant; and really they messed it all through, quite facetiously.
But it wasn't right to be messing another man's sleep with tidal waves that didn't belong to the other man.
To interfere.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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This doesn't concern you. Don't mess.
Noun
Mass; a church service.
Usage- Obsolete
A quantity of food set on a table at one time; provision of food for a person or party for one meal; also, the food given to an animal at one time.
Usage- Archaic
- Examples
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c. 1555, Hugh Latimer, letter to one in prison for the profession of the Gospel a mess of pottage
At their savoury dinner set / Of herbs and other country messes.
More examples (2)
They neither ate flesh nor fish, but lived on milk diet, made up into messes with saffron.
[Curry] consists of meat, fish, fruit, or vegetables, cooked with a quantity of bruised spices and turmeric […]; and a little of this gives a flavour to a large mess of rice.
A number of persons who eat together, and for whom food is prepared in common, especially military personnel who eat at the same table.
Usage- collective
- Examples
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the wardroom mess
But that our Feaſts / In euery Meſſe, haue folly; and the Feeders / Digeſt with a Cuſtome,
A building or room in which mess is eaten.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
The police mess had formerly been a maternity home for the wives of the Sultans of the state. Faded and tatty, peeling, floorboards eaten and unpolished, its philoprogenitive glory was a memory only.
a type of restaurant characterized by homely-style cooking and food.
Usage- India
A set of four (from the old practice of dividing companies into sets of four at dinner).
The milk given by a cow at one milking.
Usage- US usage
A group of iguanas.
Usage- collective
- Synonyms
- Examples
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A Florida high school swimming pool has been shut down indefinitely after a mess of iguanas has claimed it for themselves.
Love how green iguanas look like dinosaurs. Saw a 'mess' of iguanas on Little Conch Key in the Florida Keys. So cool!
More examples (1)
But as NPR reported in 2018, one man got an even greater surprise after he'd picked up a mess of iguanas and loaded them into his car.
A dessert of fruit and cream, similar to a fool.
- Examples
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More examples (3)
Eton is renowned for its "messes," and "strawberry mess" is Empress of them all, with raspberry mess as a very good second. It does not at all convey the joys of a "mess" to say that it consists of iced fruit and cream, and somewhat resembles a "fool." It is a thing apart, and should be approached with bated breath and unimpaired capacity.
"I'll stand you both strawberry mess." It was perfectly impossible for David not to feel elated at sitting down to strawberry-mess with two members of the eleven, in the full light of day, and in sight of the school generally […]
Eton mess, for example, which is another name for strawberry fool, links the name of a famous public school with disorder or the army slang for a meal, [...] One friend remembered a banana mess of mashed banana with two scoops of ice cream and loads of cream, and thought the strawberry version something that might be served at the 4th June College picnic, [...]
Similar desserts [to Eton Mess] include Lancing Mess (made with bananas), served at Lancing College in Sussex, and Clare College Mush[…]
More examples (1)
One Old Etonian rages that at school the dessert was simply called 'strawberry mess' and was very popular in the tuck shop. It is only outside Eton that the school's name has been added. A similar 'banana mess' is credited to School in Sussex, […]
Verb
To take meals with a mess.
Usage- Intransitive
To belong to a mess.
Usage- Intransitive
To eat (with others).
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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More examples (1)
Resolved 18. That no Guide or Interpreter whether at the Factory Depot or Inland be permitted to mess with Commissioned Gentlemen or Clerks in charge of Posts; but while at the Depot they will be allowed per Week 4 days ordinary rations...
I mess with the wardroom officers.
To supply with a mess.
Usage- Transitive
Noun
a state of confusion and disorderliness
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the house was a mess
she smoothed the mussiness of the bed
informal terms for a difficult situation
- Broader terms
- Examples
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he got into a terrible fix
he made a muddle of his marriage
soft semiliquid food
- Examples
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a mess of porridge
a meal eaten in a mess hall by service personnel
a (large) military dining room where service personnel eat or relax
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
(often followed by ‘of’) a large number or amount or extent
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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a batch of letters
a deal of trouble
More examples (6)
a lot of money
he made a mint on the stock market
see the rest of the winners in our huge passel of photos
it must have cost plenty
a slew of journalists
a wad of money
Verb
eat in a mess hall
- Broader terms
make a mess of or create disorder in
- Synonyms
- Examples
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He messed up his room