Meaning of mess | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Mass; a church service.
   obsolete
2. A surname from German.
3. a thing or group of things in a disagreeable, disorganised, or dirty state; hence a bad situation
4. ranch
5. 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.
   archaic
6. a large quantity or number
7. shed, barn
8. excrement.
   countable, euphemistic, uncountable
9. A number of persons who eat together, and for whom food is prepared in common, especially military personnel who eat at the same table.
   collective
10. excrement
11. mess (mealtime)
12. A building or room in which mess is eaten.
13. a person in a state of (especially emotional) turmoil or disarray; an emotional wreck
14. crew's quarters
15. a type of restaurant characterized by homely-style cooking and food.
    India
16. To make untidy or dirty. To make soiled by defecating. To make soiled by ejaculating
17. first-person singular present indicative of ranchar
18. A set of four (from the old practice of dividing companies into sets of four at dinner).
19. The milk given by a cow at one milking.
    US
20. A group of iguanas.
    collective
21. A dessert of fruit and cream, similar to a fool.

Equivalents

Examples

“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?”

“He made a mess of it.”

“My bedroom is such a mess; I need to tidy up.”

“Messerschmidts! A whole mess of Messerschmidts!”

“My boss dumped a whole mess of projects on my desk today.”

“She brought back a mess of fish to fix for supper.”

“There was dog mess all along the street.”

“Did you hear that? It scared the mess out of me.”

“Between the pain and the depression, I'm a mess.”

“He's been a mess and a half ever since you excommunicated him.”

“c. 1555, Hugh Latimer, letter to one in prison for the profession of the Gospel a mess of pottage”

“At their savoury dinner set / Of herbs and other country messes.”

“[Curry] consists of meat, fish, fruit, or vegetables, cooked with a quantity of bruised spices and turmeric […]; and a little of this gives a flavour to a large mess of rice.”

“the wardroom mess”

“But that our Feaſts / In euery Meſſe, haue folly; and the Feeders / Digeſt with a Cuſtome,”

“The police mess had formerly been a maternity home for the wives of the Sultans of the state. Faded and tatty, peeling, floorboards eaten and unpolished, its philoprogenitive glory was a memory only.”

“Eton is renowned for its "messes," and "strawberry mess" is Empress of them all, with raspberry mess as a very good second. It does not at all convey the joys of a "mess" to say that it consists of iced fruit and cream, and somewhat resembles a "fool." It is a thing apart, and should be approached with bated breath and unimpaired capacity.”

“"I'll stand you both strawberry mess." It was perfectly impossible for David not to feel elated at sitting down to strawberry-mess with two members of the eleven, in the full light of day, and in sight of the school generally […]”

“Eton mess, for example, which is another name for strawberry fool, links the name of a famous public school with disorder or the army slang for a meal, [...] One friend remembered a banana mess of mashed banana with two scoops of ice cream and loads of cream, and thought the strawberry version something that might be served at the 4th June College picnic, [...]”

“Similar desserts [to Eton Mess] include Lancing Mess (made with bananas), served at Lancing College in Sussex, and Clare College Mush[…]”

“One Old Etonian rages that at school the dessert was simply called 'strawberry mess' and was very popular in the tuck shop. It is only outside Eton that the school's name has been added. A similar 'banana mess' is credited to School in Sussex, […]”

CEFR level