mess
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mess¹
- /mɛs/
Rhymes with -ɛs
Where it comes from
Perhaps a corruption of Middle English mesh (“mash”), compare muss, or derived from Etymology 2 "mixed foods, as for animals". Compare also Old English mes (“dung, excrement”).
noun messes
-
A thing or group of things in a disagreeable, disorganised, or dirty state; hence a bad situation.
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?
Similar: disorder, bedlam, car crash, chaos, confusion, disarray, disorganization, dog's breakfast, dog's dinner, free-for-all, fuddle, hash
- A large quantity or number. Messerschmidts! A whole mess of Messerschmidts!
- Excrement. There was dog mess all along the street.
- A person in a state of (especially emotional) turmoil or disarray; an emotional wreck. Between the pain and the depression, I'm a mess.
verb messes · messing · messed
- To make soiled by defecating. It seems like all you do is cry, eat, and mess your diapers!
- To make soiled by ejaculating.
- To throw into disorder or to ruin. 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.
- To interfere. This doesn't concern you. Don't mess.
mess²
- /mɛs/
Rhymes with -ɛs
Where it comes from
From Middle English mes, partly from Old English mēse, mēose (“table”), a vernacular loan from Latin/Late Latin mē(n)sa (“table; meal”); and partly from Old French mes, Late Latin missum, from mittō (“to put, place (e.g. on the table)”). See mission, and compare Mass (“religious service”).
noun messes
- Mass; a church service.
- 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. c. 1555, Hugh Latimer, letter to one in prison for the profession of the Gospel a mess of pottage
- A number of persons who eat together, and for whom food is prepared in common, especially military personnel who eat at the same table. the wardroom mess
- A building or room in which mess is eaten. 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.
- 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.
-
A group of iguanas.
A Florida high school swimming pool has been shut down indefinitely after a mess of iguanas has claimed it for themselves.
Similar: slaughter
- A dessert of fruit and cream, similar to a fool. 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 w
verb messes · messing · messed
- To take meals with a mess.
- To belong to a mess.
- To eat (with others). 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...
- To supply with a mess.
Mess³
Where it comes from
Borrowed from German Mess.
proper noun Messes
- A surname from German.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: mess up, muddle, messiness, muss, mussiness, wad, heap, muckle, mickle, plenty, slew, great deal, sight, lot, fix, pile
Translations
Every language
noun confusion of things
| Español | leonera, desmadre, belén, cristo, cisco, pollo |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 혼란 hollan, 엉망 eongmang |
| 日本語 | 混乱 konran |
| 中文 | 混亂 /混乱 hùnluàn, 雜亂 /杂乱 záluàn |
| Português | bagunça |
| Français | fouillis, gâchis, bazar, foutoir, chenis, chienlit |
| Deutsch | Durcheinander, Unordnung, (totales) Chaos, Schweinerei, Saustall, Mist (bauen) |
| Italiano | confusione, macello, casino, sconquasso, percorso ad ostacoli, rovina |
| Română | haos |
| Русский | беспоря́док besporjádok, барда́к bardák, ме́сиво mésivo, пу́таница pútanica, каварда́к kavardák, кутерьма́ kuterʹmá |
| العربية | فَوْضَى fawḍā, اِخْتِلَاط iḵtilāṭ, اِرْتِبَاك irtibāk, اِضْطِرَاب iḍṭirāb |
| עברית | חוסר סדר khóser séder, אי־סדר i-séder, בלגן balagán, ברדק bardák, אנדרלמוסיה andralamúsya, בוקה ומבולקה buká umevulaká |
Talk about this word "mess." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/mess. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. mess. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/mess "mess." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/mess.Cite this
@misc{mess_2026,
title = {mess},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/mess},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
