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mess

noun
/mɛs/

Etymology

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”).

  1. derived from missum
  2. derived from mes
  3. derived from mēnsa — “table; meal”
  4. inherited from mēse
  5. inherited from mes

Definitions

  1. a thing or group of things in a disagreeable, disorganised, or dirty state

    a thing or group of things in a disagreeable, disorganised, or dirty state; hence a bad situation

    • He made a mess of it.
    • My bedroom is such a mess; I need to tidy up.

  2. a large quantity or number

    • Messerschmidts! A whole mess of Messerschmidts!
    • My boss dumped a whole mess of projects on my desk today.
    • She brought back a mess of fish to fix for supper.

  3. excrement.

    • There was dog mess all along the street.
    • Did you hear that? It scared the mess out of me.
  4. ›+ 18 more definitions

    1. a person in a state of (especially emotional) turmoil or disarray

      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.
      • I'm a mess in a dress, can't show up on time even if it would save my life. According to you.

    2. To make untidy or dirty.

      • It seems like all you do is cry, eat, and mess your diapers!

    3. To throw into disorder or to ruin.

      • But it wasn't right to be messing another man's sleep with tidal waves that didn't belong to the other man.

    4. To interfere.

      • This doesn't concern you. Don't mess.

    5. Mass

      Mass; a church service.

    6. A quantity of food set on a table at one time

      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
      • At their savoury dinner set / Of herbs and other country messes.
      • [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.

    7. A number of persons who eat together, and for whom food is prepared in common, especially…

      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
      • But that our Feaſts / In euery Meſſe, haue folly; and the Feeders / Digeſt with a Cuſtome,

    8. 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.

    9. a type of restaurant characterized by homely-style cooking and food.

    10. A set of four (from the old practice of dividing companies into sets of four at dinner).

    11. The milk given by a cow at one milking.

    12. A group of iguanas.

    13. A dessert of fruit and cream, similar to a fool.

      • "I'll stand you both strawberry mess." It was perfectly impossible for David not to feel elated at sitting down to strawberry-mess with two members of the eleven, in the full light of day, and in sight of the school generally […]

    14. To take meals with a mess.

    15. To belong to a mess.

    16. 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...
      • I mess with the wardroom officers.

    17. To supply with a mess.

    18. A surname from German.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for mess. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA