Jump To:

• mess-up
  mess-up

  noun

  a blunder; state of confusion; mix-up.
• mess up
  mess up

  Create disorder in; muddle or ruin. For example, On rainy days the children really mess up the house , or He had a way of messing up his own business . [c. 1900]

mess-up

American  

[mes-uhp] / ˈmɛsˌʌp /

noun

• mess-ups
  plural

1. a blunder; state of confusion; mix-up.

---

mess up Idioms  

1. Create disorder in; muddle or ruin. For example, On rainy days the children really mess up the house , or He had a way of messing up his own business . [c. 1900]

2. Make a mistake, especially from nervousness or confusion, as in He messed up and took the wrong dossier to the meeting , or Jill swore she would never mess up again . [ Colloquial ; early 1900s]

3. Beat up, manhandle, as in Joe got messed up in a barroom brawl . [ Slang ; early 1900s]

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• mess-ups
  plural

Etymology

Origin of mess-up

First recorded in 1900–05; noun use of verb phrase mess up

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mess-up mess up mess-ups

"What Alan Garten did here is a pretty significant mess-up and again, as you just appropriately stated, it corroborates everything that I said."

From Salon ● Jul. 3, 2023

The prime minister has accepted he made a mistake but this mess-up is likely to stick with him.

From BBC ● Jan. 21, 2023

Nick Faldo has a pretty eye-opening mess-up right off the bat on the telecast.

From Golf Digest ● Apr. 10, 2020

And, although I was just a bit-player in the story, the film dramatises a monumental mess-up on my behalf – the biggest mistake of my career.

From The Guardian ● Jul. 27, 2019

The man I knew chucked up his business and left his home and risked his life because everybody was doing it, because it seemed there was a real mess-up, because one had to.

From Nonsenseorship by G. G. Putnam

It is just as easy to mess up the timing of a passive index swap as it is a stock trade.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026

“As a defensive back, you’re going to mess up eventually,” he said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026

"I've been in a daze ever since I saw the announcement. Until more information comes out, I need to be careful not to mess up my daily life from overthinking," wrote X user Yachi.

From Barron's ● Jun. 26, 2026

Aromatics, herbs and spices: This is where things become delightfully difficult to mess up.

From Salon ● Jun. 16, 2026

“This is how I feel when I mess up in English!”

From "How Dare the Sun Rise" by Sandra Uwiringiyimana

Given the current state of AI and agents’ high-profile mess-ups, Palantir’s slop focus isn’t ungrounded in facts.

From Barron's ● May 6, 2026

The new update still produced some single-word mess-ups, while the older software had more gibberish phrases.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 29, 2026

No room for mess-ups, and if you do, the show must go on.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2023

“So the mess-ups we’ve seen this past week,” he added, “I think we’re going to see over and over and over again.”

From New York Times ● Mar. 7, 2018

A neat desk couldn’t disguise the inside of her notebook, which was a jumble of half-finished work, scratch-outs, and mess-ups.

From "Stella by Starlight" by Sharon M. Draper