mess
Contents
EnglishEdit
PronunciationEdit
Etymology 1Edit
From Middle English mes, partly from Old English mēse, mēose (table; that which is on a table; dish, food; meal, dinner; see mese); and partly from Old French mes, Late Latin missum, from mittere (“to put, place”) (e.g. on the table), Latin mittere (“to send”). See mission, and compare Mass (“religious service”). More at mese; see also mease.
NounEdit
mess (plural messes)
- (obsolete) Mass; a church service.
- (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.
- Milton
- At their savoury dinner set / Of herbs and other country messes.
- 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
- 1610, William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, IV. iv. 11:
- But that our feasts / In every mess have folly, and the feeders / Digest it with accustom,
- 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?)
- (US) The milk given by a cow at one milking.
TranslationsEdit
Mass; church service
Derived termsEdit
Derived terms
External linksEdit
Mess (military) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
VerbEdit
mess (third-person singular simple present messes, present participle messing, simple past and past participle messed)
- (intransitive) To take meals with a mess.
- (intransitive) To belong to a mess.
- (intransitive) To eat (with others).
- I mess with the wardroom officers.
- (transitive) To supply with a mess.
External linksEdit
- Mess (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia:Mess (disambiguation)
Etymology 2Edit
Perhaps a corruption of Middle English mesh (“for mash”), compare muss, or derived from Etymology 1 "mixed foods, as for animals".
NounEdit
mess (uncountable)
- 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.
- (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.
- (euphemistic) Excrement.
- There was dog mess all along the street.
- Parked under a tree, my car was soon covered in birds' mess.
QuotationsEdit
- For usage examples of this term, see Citations:mess.
SynonymsEdit
- see also Wikisaurus:disorder
TranslationsEdit
a disagreeable mixture or confusion of things
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VerbEdit
mess (third-person singular simple present messes, present participle messing, simple past and past participle messed)
- (transitive) To make a mess of.
- (transitive) To throw into confusion.
- Scribner's Magazine
- It wasn't right either to be messing another man's sleep.
- Scribner's Magazine
- (intransitive) To interfere.
- This doesn't concern you. Don't mess.
Derived termsEdit
terms derived from "mess"
External linksEdit
- Mess (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia:Mess (disambiguation)
ReferencesEdit
- mess in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
AnagramsEdit
ManxEdit
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
mess m (genitive singular mess, plural messyn)
Derived termsEdit
MutationEdit
| 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. |
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