mess

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English[edit]

English Wikipedia has articles on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /mɛs/
  • Audio (US)
    		(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛs

Etymology 1[edit]

Perhaps a corruption of Middle English mesh (“for mash”), compare muss, or derived from Etymology 1 "mixed foods, as for animals".

Noun[edit]

mess (countable and uncountable, plural messes)

  1. A disagreeable mixture or confusion of things; hence, a situation resulting from blundering or from misunderstanding; a disorder.
    He made a mess of it.
    My bedroom is such a mess; I need to tidy up.
  2. (colloquial) A large quantity or number.
    My boss dumped a whole mess of projects on my desk today.
    She brought back a mess of fish to fix for supper.
  3. (euphemistic) Excrement.
    There was dog mess all along the street.
    Parked under a tree, my car was soon covered in birds' mess.
  4. (figuratively) A person in a state of (especially emotional) turmoil or disarray; an emotional wreck.
    Between the pain and the depression, I'm a mess.
    He's been a mess and a half ever since you excommunicated him.
Quotations[edit]
Synonyms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

mess (third-person singular simple present messes, present participle messing, simple past and past participle messed)

  1. (transitive) To make a mess of.
  2. (transitive) To throw into confusion.
    • (Can we date this quote?), Scribner's Magazine
      It wasn't right either to be messing another man's sleep.
  3. (intransitive) To interfere.
    This doesn't concern you. Don't mess.
  4. screw around with, to bother, to be annoying with
    Stop messing with me!

Translations[edit]

Derived terms[edit]
terms derived from "mess"

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English mes, partly from Old English mēse, mēose (“table”); 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[edit]

mess (plural messes)

  1. (obsolete) Mass; a church service.
  2. (archaic) 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.
    A mess of pottage.
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton
      At their savoury dinner set / Of herbs and other country messes.
  3. 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
  4. A set of four (from the old practice of dividing companies into sets of four at dinner).
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Latimer to this entry?)
  5. (US) The milk given by a cow at one milking.
Derived terms[edit]
Derived terms
Translations[edit]
church service — see Mass
Further reading[edit]

Verb[edit]

mess (third-person singular simple present messes, present participle messing, simple past and past participle messed)

  1. (intransitive) To take meals with a mess.
  2. (intransitive) To belong to a mess.
  3. (intransitive) To eat (with others).
    I mess with the wardroom officers.
  4. (transitive) To supply with a mess.

Further reading[edit]

References[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Manx[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old Irish mes. Cognate with Irish meas (“fruit, mast”)

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

mess m (genitive singular mess, plural messyn)

  1. (botany) fruit

Derived terms[edit]

Mutation[edit]

Manx mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
mess vess unchanged
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Norwegian Bokmål[edit]

Verb[edit]

mess

  1. imperative of messe

Vilamovian[edit]

Noun[edit]

mess n

  1. brass

Related terms[edit]

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