Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use mess in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Mess means a thing or group of things in a disagreeable, disorganised, or dirty state; hence a bad situation. Example: “He made a mess of it.”

Examples of mess by meaning

nounA thing or group of things in a disagreeable, disorganised, or dirty state; hence a bad situation.

  • He made a mess of it.
  • My bedroom is such a mess; I need to tidy up.
  • No, look, I know that the place looks like a bit of a mess but it's actually a very delicate ecosystem.2006 Feb. 3, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 1, Episode 4

nounA large quantity or number.

  • My boss dumped a whole mess of projects on my desk today.
  • She brought back a mess of fish to fix for supper.
  • A whole mess of Messerschmidts!1943 November 20, Daffy the Commando, spoken by Daffy Duck

nounExcrement.

  • There was dog mess all along the street.
  • Did you hear that? It scared the mess out of me.

nounA person in a state of (especially emotional) turmoil or disarray; an emotional wreck.

  • Between the pain and the depression, I'm a mess.
  • He's been a mess and a half ever since you excommunicated him.
  • I'm a mess in a dress, can't show up on time even if it would save my life.2009, Andrew Frampton, Steve Diamond, “According to You”, in Believe, performed by Orianthi

verbTo make soiled by defecating.

  • It seems like all you do is cry, eat, and mess your diapers!2000 March 12, Tom Armstrong, Marvin (comic)

verbTo throw into disorder or to ruin.

  • But it wasn't right to be messing another man's sleep with tidal waves that didn't belong to the other man.1905, Arthur Colton, The Belted Seas, page 76

verbTo interfere.

  • This doesn't concern you. Don't mess.

nounA number of persons who eat together, and for whom food is prepared in common, especially military personnel who eat at...

  • the wardroom mess

More sentences with mess

  • I'm tired of picking up after you. Why can't you clean your own messes?From the entry after
  • He assumed that the girls should clean up his giant mess. We straightened out his misconception.From the entry girl
  • She made a mess when she rifled through the stack of papers, looking for the title document.From the entry rifle
  • He got up me about the mess I made in the kitchen.From the entry get up
  • We need to tend to the garden, which has become a mess.From the entry tend
  • Our splat mat has saved our rug from our baby's messes again and again.From the entry splat mat
  • Don't worry about the mess on the carpet – I'll hoover it up later.From the entry hoover up
  • Well, I messed up my solo, but otherwise it was a good concert.From the entry mess up
  • He has a hard time getting started because he's afraid he'll mess up.From the entry mess up
  • He glanced with a cringe at the mess on his desk.From the entry cringe
  • Clean things as you go so that the mess does not get out of hand.From the entry out of hand
  • You made a mess, aren't you going to pick up after yourself?From the entry pick up
  • Cattle coming to drink had punched and poached the river bank into a mess of mud.From the entry poach
  • If he wants to make a mess in his own room, it's no skin off my back.From the entry no skin off one's back
  • Would you pass me that fish slice, please; I'm making a mess trying to turn this omelette.From the entry fish slice
  • She said she was confident, but deep down she knew she had messed up.From the entry deep down
  • Your bedroom is a mess. Set things straight before you go out tonight.From the entry set straight
  • Can somebody take care of the customers while I clean this mess?From the entry take care of
  • She was chagrined to note that the paint had dried into a blotchy mess.From the entry chagrined
  • If you do not keep up with the housecleaning, you will soon have a huge mess.From the entry housecleaning
  • Don't mess with the controls. I just got everything adjusted correctly.From the entry mess with
  • The kids sat there messing around with leaves and blades of grass because they were bored.From the entry mess around
  • These guys don't mess around! They finished the whole job in ten minutes.From the entry mess around
  • Standing 6'8" and built like a tank, Adam was not a man to be messed with.From the entry built like a tank
  • Anna and I are just messing about; this isn't going to last.From the entry mess about

Meaning of mess

  1. noun A thing or group of things in a disagreeable, disorganised, or dirty state; hence a bad situation.
  2. noun A large quantity or number.
  3. noun Excrement.

Full definition of mess

Questions about mess in a sentence

How do you use mess in a sentence?
Mess is used as a noun and verb. For example: “He made a mess of it.”
What is a short sentence with mess?
“the wardroom mess”
What does mess mean?
Mess means a thing or group of things in a disagreeable, disorganised, or dirty state; hence a bad situation.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mess (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use mess in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/mess. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.