<noun.state> the house was a mess she smoothed the mussiness of the bed
informal terms for a difficult situation
<noun.state> he got into a terrible fix he made a muddle of his marriage
soft semiliquid food
<noun.food> a mess of porridge
a meal eaten in a mess hall by service personnel
<noun.food>
a (large) military dining room where service personnel eat or relax
<noun.artifact>
(often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent
<noun.quantity> a batch of letters a deal of trouble a lot of money he made a mint on the stock market see the rest of the winners in our huge passel of photos it must have cost plenty a slew of journalists a wad of money [ verb ]
Mess \Mess\ (m[e^]s), n. Mass; church service. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
Mess \Mess\ (m[e^]s), n. [OE. mes, OF. mets, LL. missum, p. p. of mittere to put, place (e. g., on the table), L. mittere to send. See {Mission}, and cf. {Mass} religious service.] 1. A quantity of food set on a table at one time; provision of food for a person or party for one meal; as, a mess of pottage; also, the food given to a beast at one time.
At their savory dinner set Of herbs and other country messes. --Milton.
2. A number of persons who eat together, and for whom food is prepared in common; especially, persons in the military or naval service who eat at the same table; as, the wardroom mess. --Shak.
3. A set of four; -- from the old practice of dividing companies into sets of four at dinner. [Obs.] --Latimer.
4. The milk given by a cow at one milking. [U.S.]
5. [Perh. corrupt. fr. OE. mesh for mash: cf. muss.] A disagreeable mixture or confusion of things; hence, a situation resulting from blundering or from misunderstanding; as, he made a mess of it. [Colloq.]
Mess \Mess\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Messed}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Messing}.] To take meals with a mess; to belong to a mess; to eat (with others); as, I mess with the wardroom officers. --Marryat.
Mess \Mess\, v. t. 1. To supply with a mess.
2. To make a mess[5] of; to disorder or muddle; to muss; to jumble; to disturb; to mess up. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
It was n't right either to be messing another man's sleep. --Scribner's Mag. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
"It's a big mess," says a congressional aide involved in the matter.
Coors must find out how seriously Keystone Dry will cannibalize the other Keystone labels, which are on a roll, said Emanuel Goldman, analyst at PaineWebber Inc. "You don't want to mess up a good thing," said Mr. Goldman.
The current system is a mess.
'My friends who disagree say Europe is in a mess.
"This will probably wind up in an awful mess," Gillis added.
"The adjourned position is a complete mess.
Gandhi said he wished Chandra Shekhar well in his post. "He has got a difficult task in dealing with the mess left by V.P. Singh's government," he told reporters outside Parliament.
The U.S. Army mess sergeant rolled up the sleeve of his jungle fatigues, squirted a few drops of milk near the American flag tattooed on his brawny arm and handed the bottle to the bawling East German infant.
Watch Television's Greatest Christmas Hits (8.00 BBC1) and you will be able to pretend that you have done Christmas and can let the whole mawkish mess (so far as television is concerned) pass you by.
Hite said Kids for Saving Earth provided an opportunity to reach the generation that will have to clean up the mess left behind by today's adults.
That adds yet more tinder to the increasingly combustible mess that is the former Yugoslavia.
They suck all the energy from "Where Duty Calls," a narrative on the Marine deaths in Lebanaon that is an embarrassing mess.
Not only that: they throw a honking great brick through the flimsy plot and leave a mess of shattered ideals.
So why mess with success?
"I think the heroes are there," Pinola said, "(but) in this case every single member of the organization feels good about their part in getting us out of this mess." The disaster plan actually was developed to deal with a great earthquake.
'It hasn't had any experience of a mess like this.
"We really tried to keep the music to its original integrity," he said. "We didn't want to mess with the original sound.
One also bears a slogan: 'Don't mess with the USA.
President Bush on Wednesday cleared the way for federal aid in Elba, the hardest-hit town in Alabama, where residents are finding a muddy mess as they return to homes and businesses that for the most part were uninsured for floods.
"We are going to have the biggest mess in prisons that we have ever dreamed of," said Rep. John Conyers (D., Mich.) at a recent congressional hearing.
"The kids were laying all along here with the blood, they were a mess," said Frances Cunningham, who lives near the scene of the accident.
To err is human; to really mess things up, though, requires a few computers.
Mr. Hammer, 52, who was recruited in 1985 from a top job at Chase Manhattan Corp. to clean up the mess at Meritor, has struggled for three years to get a grip on its persistent problems.
Mrs. Coe said her husband became furious when she told him the child has "made a mess" in his pants.
We don't need to mess with it," grumbles Robert Bayless, owner of Pastime Lanes & Lounge, in Dayton, Ohio.
"When this is over, who's going to clean up the mess?"
It was a mess," she said.
"I am sure there is careful thought being given how to lay this thing to rest," she said. "The record in this case is a mess from several points of view.
I wish I knew more about it." A three-week "get out the vote" blitz on Armed Forces Radio and voting information booths in many of the big mess halls produced good results.