mess-makingn.
/ˈmɛsmeɪkɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈmɛsˌmeɪkɪŋ/ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > preparation for table or cooking > [noun]
dressing1362
preparation?a1425
mess-making1742
mise en place1862
shackle-up1935
1742 R. North & M. North Life F. North 35 This Friendship began by Mess-making in the Temple-Hall.
1873 C. W. E. Bardsley Our Eng. Surnames iii. 173 There can be no doubt that the original ‘potagor’, or ‘potinger’, had his place in the baronial household as the superintendent of the mess-making department.
2. The action or fact of creating confusion or a predicament; (also) the action or fact of creating a dirty or untidy state of things or of a place. See mess n.1 3.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > order > disorder > confusion or disorder > [noun] > confusing or disordering
confusionc1400
plundering1642
pell-melling1792
jumbling1852
mess-making1881
1881 ‘Ex-C.M.R.’ With Cape Mounted Rifles xvii. 212 He made as great a mess of this as he had of our movements in the Galeka war. He was ably assisted in this mess-making by the greater part of the yeomanry and burghers.
1903 M. O. Wright People of Whirlpool iv. 82 Richard was..trying to carve these organs from a large mangel wurzel beet... Did father scold him for mess-making?
1999 G. Spadafori & B. L. Speer Birds for Dummies v. 98 If your bird's really good at mess-making, you need to do the big clean on a weekly basis.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1742