mess up

mess  (ms)

n.

1. A disorderly or dirty accumulation, heap, or jumble: left a mess in the yard.

2.

a. A cluttered, untidy, usually dirty condition: The kitchen was a mess.

b. A confused, troubling, or embarrassing condition; a muddle: With divorce and bankruptcy proceedings pending, his personal life was in a mess.

c. One that is in such a condition: clothes that were a mess after painting the ceiling; made a mess of their marriage.

3.

a. An amount of food, as for a meal, course, or dish: cooked up a mess of fish.

b. A serving of soft, semiliquid food: a mess of porridge.

4.

a. A group of people, usually soldiers or sailors, who regularly eat meals together.

b. Food or a meal served to such a group: took mess with the enlistees.

c. A mess hall.

v. messed, mess·ing, mess·es

v.tr.

1. To make disorderly or soiled; clutter or foul: a puppy that still messes the floor.

2. To botch; bungle.

v.intr.

1. To cause or make a mess.

2. To use or handle something carelessly; fiddle: messed with the blender until he broke it.

3. To intrude; interfere: messing in the neighbors' affairs.

4. To take a meal in a military mess.

Phrasal Verbs:

mess around Informal

1. To pass time in aimless puttering.

2. To associate casually or playfully: liked to mess around with pals on days off.

3. Informal To be sexually unfaithful.

mess up

1. Informal To make a mistake, especially from nervousness or confusion: messed up and dropped the ball.

2. Slang To beat up; manhandle: got messed up in a brawl.

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[Middle English mes, course of a meal, food, group of people eating together, from Old French, from Late Latin missus, from Latin, past participle of mittere, to place.]

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mess up

Verb

Informal

1. to make untidy or dirty

2. to spoil something, or do something badly: he messed up his driving test

Thesaurus

Verb	1.	mess up - make a mess of, destroy or ruin; "I botched the dinner and we had to eat out"; "the pianist screwed up the difficult passage in the second movement" bobble, bodge, bollix, bollix up, bollocks, bollocks up, botch, botch up, bumble, bungle, flub, fluff, foul up, fuck up, louse up, mishandle, muck up, ball up, spoil, muff, screw up, fumble, blow go wrong, miscarry, fail - be unsuccessful; "Where do today's public schools fail?"; "The attempt to rescue the hostages failed miserably"
	2.	mess up - disturb the smoothness of; "ruffle the surface of the water" ruffle up, rumple, ruffle disarrange - destroy the arrangement or order of; "My son disarranged the papers on my desk"
	3.	mess up - make a mess of or create disorder in; "He messed up his room" mess disarray, disorder - bring disorder to