Word.ws English Dictionary

messed up

messed up is the simple past and past participle of mess up.

Adjective

messed up (comparative more messed up, superlative most messed up)

  1. In disorder.
  2. (colloquial) Intoxicated, drunk.
  3. (colloquial) Morally reprehensible; clearly and grossly objectionable.
    • Publishing those photos of the car crash was messed up.
  4. (colloquial) Damaged.

Meaning of mess up

Verb

mess up (third-person singular simple present messes up, present participle messing up, simple past and past participle messed up)

  1. (transitive) To make a mess of; to untidy, disorder, soil, or muss.
    • The afternoon breeze messed up my hair.
    Synonyms:
    fuck up
  2. (transitive) To cause a problem with; to introduce an error or mistake in; to make muddled or confused; spoil; ruin.
    • The change messed something up, and it's not working anymore.
  3. (transitive) To botch, bungle; to perform poorly on.
    • Well, I messed up my solo, but otherwise it was a good concert.
  4. (intransitive) To make a mistake; to do something incorrectly; to perform poorly.
    • He has a hard time getting started because he's afraid he'll mess up.
    Synonyms:
    fuck up
  5. (transitive) To cause (another person) to make unwanted mistakes in a given task, usually through distraction or obnoxious behavior.
    • Stop bumping me! You keep messing me up!
    Synonyms:
    screw up
  6. (transitive) To damage; injure.
    • He messed up his elbow at the track meet.

See all 8 meanings of mess up

Synonyms of messed up

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Forms of messed up

Verb
alternative formmessed-up
Adjective
comparativemore messed up
superlativemost messed up

Words formed from messed up

Questions about messed up

What does messed up mean?
Messed up means in disorder.
What is messed up the simple past and past participle of?
Messed up is the simple past and past participle of mess up.
What part of speech is messed up?
Messed up is an adjective.

Words near messed up in the dictionary

  1. messdecks
  2. Messecar
  3. messed
  4. messed about
  5. messed around
  6. messed up
  7. messed with
  8. messed-up
  9. messed-upness
  10. messeigneurs
  11. messelite

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: messed up (page history and authors); mess up (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “messed up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/messed_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.