/ mes; NAmE / noun , verb
■ noun
UNTIDY STATE
1.
[ C , usually sing. ] a dirty or untidy state :
The room was in a mess .
The kids made a mess in the bathroom.
' What a mess !' she said, surveying the scene after the party.
My hair's a real mess!
DIFFICULT SITUATION
2.
[ C , usually sing. ] a situation that is full of problems, usually because of a lack of organization or because of mistakes that sb has made :
The economy is in a mess .
I feel I've made a mess of things.
The whole situation is a mess.
Let's try to sort out the mess.
The biggest question is how they got into this mess in the first place.
( ironic )
PERSON
3.
[ sing. ] a person who is dirty or whose clothes and hair are not tidy :
You're a mess!
4.
[ sing. ] ( informal ) a person who has serious problems and is in a bad mental condition
ANIMAL WASTE
5.
[ U , C ] ( informal ) the excrement (= solid waste matter) of an animal, usually a dog or cat
A LOT
6.
[ sing. ] a ~ of sth ( NAmE , informal ) a lot of sth :
There's a mess of fish down there, so get your lines in the water.
ARMED FORCES
7.
[ C ] (also ˈmess hall especially in NAmE ) a building or room in which members of the armed forces have their meals :
the officers' mess
■ verb
MAKE UNTIDY
1.
[ vn ] ( informal , especially NAmE ) to make sth dirty or untidy :
Careful—you're messing my hair.
OF AN ANIMAL
2.
[ v ] to empty its bowels somewhere that it should not
•
IDIOMS
- no messing
- not mess around
•
PHRASAL VERBS
- mess around
- mess around with sb
- mess around with sth
- mess sb about / around
- mess up | mess sth up
- mess sb up
- mess sth up
- mess with sb/sth
••
WORD ORIGIN
Middle English : from Old French mes portion of food, from late Latin missum something put on the table, past participle of mittere send, put. The original sense was a serving of (semi-liquid) food , later liquid food for an animal ; this gave rise (early 19th cent.) to the senses unappetizing concoction and predicament , on which senses 1, 3 and 4 are based. In late Middle English the term also denoted any of the small groups into which the company at a banquet was divided (who were served from the same dishes); hence, a group who regularly eat together (recorded in military use from the mid 16th cent.).