Meaning of mess in English

Table of contents
  1. Pronunciation
  2. Verb
    1. Definitions
  3. Noun
    1. Etymology
    2. Definitions

  1. Pronunciation

    /mɛs/

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  1. Verb

    mess

    Definitions

    1. eat in a mess hall

    Derived terms

  2. 2. make a mess of or create disorder in

    Examples

    • « He messed up his room »

    Derived terms

  3. Noun

    mess

    Etymology

    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 (semiliquid) 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)

    Definitions

    1. a state of confusion and disorderliness

    Examples

    • « the house was a mess »
    • « she smoothed the mussiness of the bed »

    Derived terms

  4. 2. informal terms for a difficult situation

    Examples

    • « he got into a terrible fix »
    • « he made a muddle of his marriage »
  5. 3. soft semiliquid food

    Examples

    • « a mess of porridge »
  6. 4. a meal eaten by service personnel
  7. 5. a (large) military dining room where service personnel eat or relax
  8. 6. (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent

    Examples

    • « a batch of letters »
    • « a deal of trouble »
    • « a lot of money »
    • « he made a mint on the stock market »
    • « it must have cost plenty »

    Derived terms

Famous quotes

  • « There comes a point in your moviegoing life where you look at the screen and then you look at the world and you ask, 'What is going on?' You want the movies to show you the chaos and mess and risk and failure that are normal for a lot of us. Generally, the movies hide all of that. »
    Wesley Morris
  • « I am a contradictory mess but I see it as my prerogative to change my mood like the weather. »
    Shirley Manson
  • « What's right about America is that although we have a mess of problems, we have great capacity - intellect and resources - to do some thing about them. »
    Henry Ford
  • « There's a remarkable amount of sexism on TV. When male characters are flawed, they're interesting, deep and complex. But when female characters are flawed, they're just a mess. It's good to put more flawed but interesting female characters out there because it promotes equality. »
    Ellen Pompeo
  • « We tried to approach this as though there's never been a Superman movie before, but at the same time respecting the canon and mythology. There are the pillars that you have to respect, and I'm not about to break them. But it is fun for me to bend them and mess with them. »
    Zack Snyder

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