muss
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
verb
noun
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.
As always, Lorenzo is more than happy to muss up the expected, to push the boundaries while still respecting the core traditions of the art form.
From Los Angeles Times • May 6, 2025
At one place, you might be able to walk in and out the door with a pet, no muss, no fuss.
From Salon • Dec. 6, 2024
Ich muss mich wohl sehr ungeschickt ausgedrückt haben, denn du hast tatsächlich fast jedes Wort missverstanden.
From Scientific American • Sep. 7, 2023
"Ich muss Deutsch lernen," he said: "I have to learn German."
From Reuters • Apr. 5, 2023
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
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.
