mess
/mɛs
/- Go to Paddy's shed to avoid making a mess of the kitchen.
- Each time you host a party at home, it's a total mess in the kitchen due to last minute preparations.
- The kitchen is a mess and I walked in, took one look around and walked out.
Synonyms
- Residents of Speedwell Road, Old Heath, were disgusted after Colchester Council refuse collectors left the mess in their wake yesterday morning.
- Dog bins were to be specially built and extra money put towards collection of the mess.
- Mr. Sims, the drama teacher, crawled on the floor, trying to collect the mess.
- Two nights and three days on a smoky train, I was a real mess by the time I got to Matagorda.
- She looked like a real mess, her long hair all spread around, her make up destroyed, giving her the look of a monster.
- I want to ride every hour of the waking day, but after a month of riding, just an hour turns me into a sweating, out-of-breath, pathetic mess.
- Police say he is responsible for pushing dog mess through letterboxes, smashing windows, damaging cars, pelting people with eggs and assaulting other youngsters.
- According to a couple who spoke to Coun Kaye about dog mess, he told them as he left: ‘You can't educate the working class.’
- One said that the problem of dog mess had been overshadowed by abandoned condoms, empty alcohol containers and remnants of glue sniffing, which had been left of the recreation field.
Synonyms
- The situation is a mess, and a confusing one, but there is no point in even talking about changing it.
- They already knew that the giant had feet of clay: a government that can make such a mess of a minor colonial war can also make a mess of disaster relief.
- ‘The only risk is if the Government make a mess of things and the stadium is not completed as planned,’ said Mr Hobbs.
Synonyms
- All through my pregnancy I was so scared that I would lose it; I was in a real mess.
- Her boyfriend's just dumped her, she's a real mess.
- It shows that young Leftists are a real psychological mess - with VERY unhappy childhoods.
- The manager looks at my plate - a mess of crumbled bread and glistening meat - and says Can I Help You in a tone that blames me for living.
- This sounds simple enough but the deeper flavours of the black cherries married magically with the creamy mess and light brioche bread.
- A foamy mess of soggy bread floated on top of a thick orange liquid.
- The building will also house a mess room, locker rooms, kitchen, offices and an education suite complete with computer and reference books.
- You can assign me to clean the latrine or peel potatoes in the army mess, and I will be deriving a science out of it.
- They were often blamed for eating all the sandwiches before the other officers returned to mess at night.
- A mess of us will convene in San Diego for this year's Comic-Con International.
- Although there are some truly enjoyable moments, The Last Kiss is generally a mess of stories and lacks the heart that makes a romantic movie so memorable.
- I've eaten at Kam Han several times recently, both at lunch and dinner, as well as having ordered a mess of takeout, and the food has generally been very good.
- I watched Danny's fingers as they trailed through my hair, completely messing my hairstyle, which had taken hours to do.
- She messed my already disorderly hair with her fingers.
- Hauser is about as bland as they come, robotically experiencing happiness, pain, and anger without ever messing his dyed hair or wrinkling his smoothed face.
Synonyms
- A member of Craven's dog control panel, Coun Polly English said: ‘If anyone sees a dog messing and they know the owner let me know and I will pass it on.’
- On one occasion we even offered a plastic bag to the owner of a Labrador whose dog had messed in the field, and all we got was a lot of abusive language!
- So Hazel does not like horses messing in the street, fearing a health hazard, but she drives a car.
- In fact, I am so frightened, I fear I might just mess my pants!
- Is it a strategy to not mess one's own pants?
- When he sees a muzzle-flash in his vision, he messes his pants before he falls dead or wounded.
Phrases
make a mess
make a mess of
mess with someone's head
Phrasal verbs
mess about/around
mess about/around with
mess someone about/around
mess up
mess someone up
mess something up
mess with
Origin
Middle English: from Old French mes 'portion of food', from late Latin missum 'something put on the table', past participle of mittere 'send, put'. The original sense was 'a serving of (semi-liquid) food', later 'liquid food for an animal'; this gave rise (early 19th century) to the senses 'unappetizing concoction' and 'predicament', on which sense 1 is based. In late Middle English the term also denoted any of the small groups into which the company at a banquet was divided (who were served from the same dishes); hence, 'a group who regularly eat together' (recorded in military use from the mid 16th century).
Current senses of mess, ‘a dirty or untidy state’, and ‘a confused situation full of problems’, date only from the 19th century. Back in the Middle Ages a mess was ‘a portion of food’, and especially ‘a portion of liquid or pulpy food’. This is the meaning in the phrase to sell for a mess of pottage (pottage is soup or stew), which refers to the biblical story, told in Genesis, in which Esau sells his birthright to his brother Jacob. At medieval banquets diners were divided into small groups, usually of four people, who sat together and were served from the same dishes. Such a group was also a mess, and is still so on board ship and in military canteens. From this developed the sense ‘a place providing meals and recreational facilities for members of the armed forces’, as in the officers' mess.