mess

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See also: Mess

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 (“mash”), compare muss, or derived from Etymology 2 "mixed foods, as for animals".

Noun[edit]

mess (countable and uncountable, plural messes)

  2. A disagreeable mixture or confusion of things; hence, a situation resulting from blundering or from misunderstanding.
    • 2006 Feb. 3, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 1, Episode 4:
      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?
    Synonyms: disorder; see also Thesaurus:disorder
    He made a mess of it.
    My bedroom is such a mess; I need to tidy up.
  3. (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.
  4. (euphemistic) Excrement.
    There was dog mess all along the street.
    Parked under a tree, my car was soon covered in birds' mess.
  5. (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.
Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

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

  1. (transitive, often used with "up") To make untidy or dirty.
    1. To make soiled by defecating.
    2. To make soiled by ejaculating.
  2. (transitive, often used with "up") To throw into disorder or to ruin.
    • 1905, Arthur Colton, The Belted Seas‎[1], page 76:
      But it wasn't right to be messing another man's sleep with tidal waves that didn't belong to the other man.
  3. (intransitive) To interfere.
    This doesn't concern you. Don't mess.
  4. (used with "with") To screw around with, to bother, to be annoying to.
    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.
  3. (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.
    • c. 1555, Hugh Latimer, letter to one in prison for the profession of the Gospel
      a mess of pottage
    • a. 1645, John Milton, “L’Allegro”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, OCLC 606951673:
      At their savoury dinner set / Of herbs and other country messes.
    • 1903, Henry Yule, Arthur Burnell, Hobson-Jobson
      [Curry] consists of meat, fish, fruit, or vegetables, cooked with a quantity of bruised spices and turmeric […] ; and a little of this gives a flavour to a large mess of rice.
  4. (collective) 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
  5. A building or room in which mess is eaten.
    • 1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 20:
      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.
  6. A set of four (from the old practice of dividing companies into sets of four at dinner).
  7. (US) The milk given by a cow at one milking.
  8. (collective) A group of iguanas.
    Synonym: slaughter
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).
    • 1836, George Simpson & al., HBC Standing Rules and Regulations, §18:
      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...
    I mess with the wardroom officers.
  4. (transitive) To supply with a mess.

Further reading[edit]

References[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Hungarian[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

metsz +‎ -j (personal suffix)

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

mess

  1. second-person singular subjunctive present indefinite of metsz

Maltese[edit]

Root
m-s-s
3 terms

Etymology[edit]

From Arabic مَسَّ‎ (massa).

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

mess (imperfect jmiss, past participle mimsus)

  1. to touch
  2. (figuratively) to touch, to affect

Conjugation[edit]

    Conjugation of mess
singular plural
1st person 2nd person 3rd person 1st person 2nd person 3rd person
perfect m messejt messejt mess messejna messejtu messew
f messet
imperfect m mmiss tmiss jmiss mmissu tmissu jmissu
f tmiss
imperative miss missu

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

Old Irish[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Celtic *messus, from Proto-Indo-European *med-.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

mess m (genitive messa, nominative plural mesai)

  1. verbal noun of midithir
  2. judgment
    • c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 55d11
      Amal du·berad nech hi ceist do Dauid: “Húare is móir sléb fírinne Dǽ, cid ara fodmai-siu, ⟨a⟩ Dauid, didiu a ndu imnedaib ⁊ frithoircnib fo·daimi? Air it fírían-⟨s⟩u.” Ícaid-som didiu anísin, a n‑as·mbeir iudicia Domini abisus multa .i. ataat mesai Dǽ nephchomtetarrachti amal abis ⁊ amal fudumain. Is ed in sin fod·era in n‑erígim, cid ara fodaim int aís fírían inna fochaidi, ⁊ cid ara mbiat in pecthaig isnaib soinmechaib.
      As though someone had put as a question to David: “Because God’s righteousness is as great as a mountain, why then, David, dost thou suffer what of afflictions and injuries thou sufferest? For thou art righteous.” He solves that then when he says “iudicia Domini abyssus multa”, i.e. there are judgments of God incomprehensible like an abyss and like a depth. That is what causes the complaint why the righteous folk endure tribulations, and why sinners are in prosperity.

Declension[edit]

Masculine u-stem
Singular Dual Plural
Nominative mess messL messaeH, mesai
Vocative mess messL messu
Accusative messN messL messu
Genitive messoH, messaH messoL, messaL messaeN
Dative messL messaib messaib
Initial mutations of a following adjective:
  • H = triggers aspiration
  • L = triggers lenition
  • N = triggers nasalization

Descendants[edit]

  • Irish: meas

Mutation[edit]

Old Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Nasalization
mess
also mmess after a proclitic 		mess
pronounced with /ṽ(ʲ)-/ 		unchanged
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading[edit]

Swedish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Clipping of sms.

Noun[edit]

mess n

  1. (colloquial) text message
    Synonym: sms

Declension[edit]

Declension of mess 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative mess messet mess messen
Genitive mess messets mess messens

Derived terms[edit]

References[edit]

Vilamovian[edit]

Noun[edit]

mess n

  1. brass

Related terms[edit]

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