mess

English Online Dictionary. What means mess‎? What does mess mean?

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛs/
• Rhymes: -ɛs

Etymology 1

Perhaps a corruption of Middle English mesh (“mash”), compare muss, or derived from Etymology 2 "mixed foods, as for animals". Compare also Old English mes (“dung, excrement”).

Noun

mess (countable and uncountable, plural messes)

2. A disagreeable mixture or confusion of things; hence, a situation resulting from blundering or from misunderstanding.
   • 2006 Feb. 3, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 1, Episode 4:

     No, look, I know that the place looks like a bit of a mess but it's actually a very delicate ecosystem. Everything is connected. It's like the rainforest. You change one thing, even the tiniest bit, and the whooole rainforest dies. You don't want the rainforest to die, do ya?

   Synonyms: disorder; see also Thesaurus:disorder

3. (colloquial) A large quantity or number.

4. (euphemistic) Excrement.

5. (figuratively) A person in a state of (especially emotional) turmoil or disarray; an emotional wreck.

Translations

Verb

mess (third-person singular simple present messes, present participle messing, simple past and past participle messed)

1. (transitive, often used with "up") To make untidy or dirty.
   1. To make soiled by defecating.
   2. To make soiled by ejaculating.
2. (transitive, often used with "up") To throw into disorder or to ruin.
3. (intransitive) To interfere.

Translations

Derived terms

Etymology 2

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”).

Noun

mess (plural messes)

2. (obsolete) Mass; a church service.
4. (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.
   • c. 1555, Hugh Latimer, letter to one in prison for the profession of the Gospel

     a mess of pottage
6. (collective) A number of persons who eat together, and for whom food is prepared in common, especially military personnel who eat at the same table.
8. A building or room in which mess is eaten.
9. A set of four (from the old practice of dividing companies into sets of four at dinner).
10. (US) The milk given by a cow at one milking.
11. (collective) A group of iguanas.

    Synonym: slaughter

12. (cooking) A dessert of fruit and cream, similar to a fool.

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Portuguese: messe

Translations

Further reading

• Mess (military) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

mess (third-person singular simple present messes, present participle messing, simple past and past participle messed)

1. (intransitive) To take meals with a mess.
2. (intransitive) To belong to a mess.
3. (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...

4. (transitive) To supply with a mess.

Further reading

• Mess (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

References

• “mess”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• MSEs, MSes, Mses, Mses., SEMs, SMEs, sems

Hungarian

Alternative forms

• messél, metssz, metsszél

Etymology

metsz +‎ -j (personal suffix)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈmɛʃː]
• Hyphenation: mess
• Rhymes: -ɛʃː

Verb

mess

1. second-person singular subjunctive present indefinite of metsz

Maltese

Etymology

From Arabic مَسَّ (massa).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛs/

Verb

mess (imperfect jmiss, past participle mimsus)

1. to touch
2. (figurative) to touch, to affect

Conjugation

Manx

Etymology

From Old Irish mess (“nuts”), from Proto-Celtic *messus (“acorn”). Cognate with Irish meas (“fruit, mast”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /meːs/

Noun

mess m (genitive singular mess, plural messyn)

1. (botany) fruit

Derived terms

• messghart

Mutation

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

mess

1. imperative of messe

Old Irish

Alternative forms

• mes

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [mʲes]

Etymology 1

From Proto-Celtic *messus (“judgement”), from Proto-Indo-European *med-.

Noun

mess m (genitive messa, nominative plural mesai)

1. verbal noun of midithir
2. judgment

For quotations using this term, see Citations:mess.

Declension

Derived terms

Descendants

• Irish: meas
• Scottish Gaelic: meas

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 mes(s)”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

Etymology 2

From Proto-Celtic *messus (“acorn”).

Noun

mess m (genitive messa)

1. (collective) tree nuts, mast

Descendants

• Middle Irish: mes, mess
  • Irish: meas
  • Manx: mess
  • Scottish Gaelic: meas

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “2 mes(s)”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

Mutation

Swedish

Etymology

Clipping of sms.

Noun

mess n

1. (colloquial) text message

   Synonym: sms

Declension

Derived terms

• messa

References

• mess in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• mess in Svensk ordbok (SO)

Vilamovian

Etymology

From Middle High German messinc, from Proto-Germanic *masjinga-, of uncertain ultimate origin. Perhaps derived from Ancient Greek Μοσσύνοικοι (Mossúnoikoi, “Mossynoeci”), the name of an ancient people connected with metallurgy; or alternatively from Latin massa (“lump (of metal)”).

Noun

mess n

1. brass

Related terms

• messera