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muss

[muhs]
noun
  1. a state of disorder or untidiness.
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verb (used with object)
  1. to put into disorder; make messy; rumple (often followed by up).
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Origin of muss

1820–30; perhaps blend of mess and fuss

Synonyms

2. mess, disturb, tangle, bedraggle.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

turmoilhashmessconfusionchaosmuddleshamblesmix-upmess-uprummagedisturbdisarrayruffledisorganizerumpleupsetwrinklecluttertouslejumble

Examples from the Web for mussed

Historical Examples

  • His hair was mussed and there were wisps of hay on his clothes.

    Rosinante to the Road Again

    John Dos Passos

  • Mussed or blood-stained specimens should not necessarily be discarded.

    Taxidermy

    Leon Luther Pray

  • Didn't like the way I mussed up son Rutherford, I kind o' gathered.

    Oh, You Tex!

    William Macleod Raine

  • This summer she's going to do the Rockies, because things are so mussed up in Europe, she says.

    Gigolo

    Edna Ferber

  • An' with one set o' lungs their mas says no, they'd get mussed for the tree if they do.

British Dictionary definitions for mussed

muss

verb
  1. (tr often foll by up) to make untidy; rumple
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noun
  1. a state of disorder; muddle
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Word Origin

C19: probably a blend of mess + fuss
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for mussed

muss

v.

"to make untidy," 1837, probably a variant of mess in its sense of "disorder." Earlier (1830) as a noun meaning "disturbance." Related: Mussed; mussing.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper