muss
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
musssimple
-
mussessimple
-
have mussedperfect
-
has mussedperfect
-
am mussingprogressive
-
are mussingprogressive
-
is mussingprogressive
-
have been mussingperfect progressive
-
has been mussingperfect progressive
Past
-
mussedsimple
-
had mussedperfect
-
was mussingprogressive
-
were mussingprogressive
-
had been mussingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of muss
Explanation
To muss is to mess up. When your grandmother reaches over to muss your hair, she tousles it — you'll have to carefully comb it again before you leave for school. Falling in the mud might make you muss your new jeans, and a strong wind on a boat will muss everyone's hair. While the verb muss means "make untidy," it's almost always used to talk about hair, and occasionally clothing. The word muss has been around since the nineteenth century, and it was probably originally a variation on mess. A muss was once also a term meaning "a fight or disturbance."
Vocabulary lists containing muss
Milkweed
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The Book of Unknown Americans
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Tears of a Tiger
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He adds, "No muss, no fuss; she's with us."
From Salon • Mar. 10, 2023
Kremer’s latest recording, “Searching for Beethoven,” with cellist Mario Brunello and the Kremerata Baltica, begins with Brunello’s arrangement of “Muss es Sein? Es muss sein!,” a 1970s song by anarchistic French chanteur Léo Ferré.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 14, 2020
His brown hair is swept back so meticulously and abundantly that it almost dares you to muss it.
From Washington Post • Nov. 30, 2020
Once her hair was set, she would not disturb it, and sate sleeping in a chair, that it might not muss.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
At last the eye patch was finished, and Margaret adjusted it carefully so as not to muss Lady Constance’s elaborately upswept hair.
From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
