mess
verb
- disrupt
- mess with
noun
- situation or place lacking order
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /mɛs/
name
Etymology: Borrowed from German Mess.
- A surname from German.
noun
Etymology: From Middle English mes, partly from Old English mēse, mēose (“table”), a vernacular loan from Latin/Late Latin mē(n)sa (“table; meal”); and partly from Old French mes, Late Latin missum, from mittō (“to put, place (e.g. on the table)”). See mission, and compare Mass (“religious service”).
- Mass; a church service.
- 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.
“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.”
- A number of persons who eat together, and for whom food is prepared in common, especially military personnel who eat at the same table.
“the wardroom mess”
“But that our Feaſts / In euery Meſſe, haue folly; and the Feeders / Digeſt with a Cuſtome,”
- A building or room in which mess is eaten.
“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.”
- a type of restaurant characterized by homely-style cooking and food.
- A set of four (from the old practice of dividing companies into sets of four at dinner).
- The milk given by a cow at one milking.
- A group of iguanas.
- A dessert of fruit and cream, similar to a fool.
“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 […]”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English mes, partly from Old English mēse, mēose (“table”), a vernacular loan from Latin/Late Latin mē(n)sa (“table; meal”); and partly from Old French mes, Late Latin missum, from mittō (“to put, place (e.g. on the table)”). See mission, and compare Mass (“religious service”).
- To take meals with a mess.
- To belong to a mess.
- To eat (with others).
“Resolved 18. That no Guide or Interpreter whether at the Factory Depot or Inland be permitted to mess with Commissioned Gentlemen or Clerks in charge of Posts; but while at the Depot they will be allowed per Week 4 days ordinary rations...”
“I mess with the wardroom officers.”
- To supply with a mess.