mess
EnglishEdit
PronunciationEdit
Etymology 1Edit
Perhaps a corruption of Middle English mesh (“for mash”), compare muss, or derived from Etymology 1 "mixed foods, as for animals".
NounEdit
mess (countable and uncountable, plural messes)
- 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.
- (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.
QuotationsEdit
- For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:mess.
SynonymsEdit
- see also Thesaurus:disorder
TranslationsEdit
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, often used with up) To make untidy or dirty.
- To make soiled by defecating.
- (transitive, often used with up) To throw into disorder or to ruin.
- (Can we date this quote?), Scribner's Magazine
- It wasn't right either to be messing another man's sleep.
- (Can we date this quote?), Scribner's Magazine
- (intransitive) To interfere.
- This doesn't concern you. Don't mess.
- (used with with) screw around with, to bother, to be annoying with
- Stop messing with me!
TranslationsEdit
Derived termsEdit
terms derived from "mess"
Etymology 2Edit
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”).
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.
- (Can we date this quote?) John 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 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.
- 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.
Derived termsEdit
Derived terms
TranslationsEdit
church service — see Mass
Further readingEdit
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).
- 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.
- 1836, George Simpson & al., HBC Standing Rules and Regulations, §18:
- (transitive) To supply with a mess.
Further readingEdit
- Mess (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
ReferencesEdit
- mess in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
AnagramsEdit
ManxEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Old Irish mes. Cognate with Irish meas (“fruit, mast”)
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. | ||